Pertamina interested in LyondellBasell oil refinery

(bloomberg) -- PT Pertamina, Indonesia’s state oil company, is interested in a refinery in southern France that LyondellBasell Industries NV (LYB) threatened to shutter permanently, according to French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg.

The state pressured LyondellBasell to mothball the refinery after the company said last year it planned to shut the plant permanently and cut 370 jobs because it couldn’t find a buyer. "The minister and his team are fully committed to try to make a solution with future for the refinery and its employees," the ministry said Tuesday in a statement.

The LyondellBasell refinery is under reconstruction and its refining units are being mothballed through to the end of 2013 after the company was unable to find a buyer.

The refinery would be the third to stop operations in France over the past years as the whole business lost profitability because of low demand in the region, overcapacity and rising competition from refiners in the Middle East and Asia.

A fourth refinery is in trouble in Petit-Couronne on the country's northern coast after its owner, Swiss-based company Petroplus, filed for protection from creditors.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest suppliers of imported polyolefins in Russia.
MRC

(cnbc) -- LyondellBasell announced that the company will restore a low-density polyethylene (LDPE) line in Wesseling, Germany, that has been out of service since January 2012. Startup of the new line is targeted for mid-2013.

The Wesseling LDPE line has historically been used to produce LDPE grades for healthcare applications. Restoration of this LDPE line will enhance the company's ability to supply this important market. LyondellBasell also announced the creation of a new sales group within its European specialty polyolefins sales organization to further strengthen its commitment to, and support of, customers in the medical industry.

"The restoration of this LDPE production line at Wesseling and the increased focus we will obtain through our new sales organization will enable us to better serve our customers and help them to optimize their supply chain through our higher production capability," said Bob Patel, LyondellBasell's Senior Vice President, Olefins and Polyolefins for Europe, Asia and International.

LyondellBasell is one of the world's largest plastics, chemical and refining companies and a member of the S&P 500 Index. LyondellBasell manufactures products at 58 sites in 18 countries.

LyondellBasell products and technologies are used to make items that improve the quality of life for people around the world including packaging, electronics, automotive parts, home furnishings, construction materials and biofuels.
MRC

(Reuters) - Profit at MOL almost doubled in the third quarter thanks to a strong performance by the Hungarian oil and gas group's refining business due to improved product margins and inventory gains.

MOL's net profit jumped to 67.5 billion forints (USD299 mln) from 36.4 billion in the same period of 2011 while group operating profit, excluding special items, surged to 117.2 billion forints from 64.5 billion.

"Increasing profitability was mainly attributable to an improving downstream performance, which is due to better product margins, higher sales volumes and inventory gains," MOL said in its report published on Wednesday.

Helped by higher crack spreads and inventory gains, as well as higher refinery output, MOL's downstream business made an operating profit excluding one-off items of 54.3 billion forints versus a loss of 17 billion in the same period of 2011.

MOL Group is a leading integrated Central and East European oil and gas corporation with an extensive international Upstream and Downstream portfolio.

TVK is wholly owned by Hungary's MOL group. TVK is a significant player in market of polyolefins in Ukraine.
MRC

(bloomberg) -- Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), the world’s largest petrochemical maker, plans to invest in companies in the U.S and elsewhere that have technology to turn shale gas into chemical products.

The amount of natural gas produced from shale is a "game- changer" that will have a large impact on worldwide supplies, Mohamed Al-Mady, chief executive officer of the company known as Sabic, said today in an interview in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.

"It will require Sabic to become more competitive and to participate in the shale-gas boom itself," he said. "Our strategic focus is to examine shale gas very closely and find very competitive areas where we can invest."

Growth in U.S. shale-gas exploration and production has lowered domestic gas prices and enables producers there to use gas as feedstock. That has put pressure on petrochemical producers in Saudi Arabia who get gas for a government- subsidized price of USD0.75 per million British thermal units.

Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Saudi Aramco, is exploring for shale gas in northern parts of the country, and has started a venture capital company this year to buy stakes in companies with technology to develop the resource.

With many plants in the U.S. under construction, "it will take three years or less to see the impact of the shale-gas boom on the petrochemicals industry," al-Mady said. "The world economy is expanding and hopefully, the expansion and future growth in world’s economy will absorb new supply of petrochemicals from shale gas."

Sabic’s venture capital arm is looking for opportunities in the U.S., Europe and China to buy stakes in start-up companies that can turn shale gas into petrochemicals, according to Ernesto Occhiello, Sabic Ventures’ executive vice president for technology and innovation.

Formed last November, the Netherlands-based business is negotiating 30 to 40 deals and is looking especially at technologies that use different feedstocks, Occhiello said today in Jubail.
MRC

(eon) -- Qinghai Damei Coal Industry has signed a license agreement for UNIPOLPolypropylene Process Technology with Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Technology LLC, a wholly owned Subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company.

The coal based polyolefin complex, located in the Xining Economic and Technological Development Zone of Xining City, Qinghai Province in China, is expected to start up in 2015. The 400 KTA polypropylene plant will produce homopolymers, random copolymers and impact copolymers. This is the 12th UNIPOL Polypropylene Technology license signed in China since 2006. The 11th license was signed by Jiutai Energy in September, as MRC informed earlier. With the least complex PP process technologies available and low investment costs, Dow’s UNIPOL PP Process Technology positions polypropylene manufacturers to meet and exceed increasing demand for high quality polypropylene.

The UNIPOL PP process for polypropylene is a comprehensive technology and services package with established worldwide success. It combines product and catalyst know-how with leading gas-phase process technology and technology transfer expertise. Licensed by Union Carbide since 1985, UNIPOL PP technology is now available through Dow. Resins produced by UNIPOL polypropylene technology from Dow account for 17 percent of global polypropylene output. Polypropylene is a versatile plastic used in packaging, durable goods, automotive parts, non-wovens, fibers and consumer applications.
MRC