PetroChina will develop shale gas reserves in Canada

MOSCOW (MRC) - Chinese petrochemical major, PetroChina, signed a USD2.18 billion agreement with Encana Corp to form a joint venture for exploration of shale gas reserves in the Canadian province of Alberta, according to Bloomberg.

Phoenix Duvernay Gas, a subsidiary of PetroChina, will enter Duvernay project with almost 50% of equity participation, accoring to the agreement, and will develop shale gas reserves, estimated at 9 billion barrels of oil equivalent, in the central-western part of the province.

PetroChina has already invested USD1.18 billion dollars in the project. The company plans to pay the remained amount within a four-year term in a form of costs for shale gas exploration. It is assumed that within the same time period the partners will invest around USD4 billion in drilling and refining.

The agreement on the development of shale gas by the Chinese company was announced even less than a week after Canada had imposed new, stricter rules for foreign investment into the country's energy projects, and after the government had approved of the purchase of Canada's Nexen Petroleum Corporation by CNOOC and the acquisition of Progress Energy Resources by Malaysia's Petronas.

We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, a subsidiary of PetroChina - Fushun Petrochemical - in the second half of this year, started production of basic petrochemical products at its new plant in Fushun, Liaoning Province, China. The design capacity of the petrochemical complex is 300,000 tpa of polypropylene (PP), 350,000 tpa of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and 450,000 tpa of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Import of polypropylene (PP) to the Russian market started to decline after an October upsurge. In November, the total import volume of PP to Russia slashed to the level of 18,000 tonnes. Over the past eleven months, PP exports to Russia made about 256,000 tonnes, according to MRC DataScope.

Imports of polypropylene to the Russian market started to decrease again in November after the October upsurge. Exports fell by 37% from October and made about 18,000 tonnes. The decline in import volumes was registered for all polypropylene grades and was due to a seasonal factor as well as limited export quotas from some makers.

In November, imports of propylene homopolymer dropped to the level of 7,300 tonnes, while in October this index made about 11,700 tonnes. Such a significant cut in exports accounted for Turkmen raffia. After an October peak of 8,600 tonnes, PP supplies from Turkmenistan decreased to 2,500 tonnes. The further upsurge of Turkmen import of PP is expected in the second half of December.

Import of propylene copolymers fell by 39%. Exports of block compolymers of propylene reached its peak (6,700 tonnes) in October and decreased to the level of 4,400 tonnes in November. Import of random copolymers dropped almost by half and reached the level of 3,100 tonnes. The decline of random copolymers largely accounted for pipe grades and was due to the rise of output by Russian producers.

In general, over the past eleven months the total import volume of polypropylene to the Russian Federation made about 256,000 tonnes, up 51% year-on-year. Exports of propylene homopolymer rose by 52%, while the growth of imports of block and random copolymers made 31% and 69%, respectively.

MRC

(maritime-executive) -- The GCC annual consumption of 3.4 million metric tons of plastics is expected to cross 5.5 million metric tons by 2015, with Qatar meeting the bulk of the supply.

These figures were released at a press conference in Doha to announce that Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco), the leading Qatar based petrochemical company, is the Principal Sponsor of Arabplast 2013 for the second time in a row.

Arabplast, the Middle East's No 1 tradeshow for rubber, plastics and petrochemicals, will be held from January 7 to 10, 2013, at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre.

Highlighting the significance of Qatar in the petrochemicals sector as one of the six Gulf States that produce petrochemicals for the global market, the speakers said that Gulf States command an 11 % share of the USD600bn global petrochemical industry.

The petrochemical industry in the GCC began to evolve with the establishment of QAPCO in 1980 as the first petrochemicals company in the Gulf.

Qapco has a strong track-record of growth and excellence. The company is a major player in the global petrochemical industry. It has continued expansion, both in production facilities and target markets.

Khanna stressed on the importance of the petrochemicals in the GCC as a key driver of the economy and one of the bases of economic diversification in GCC countries, including Qatar.

The Arabian Gulf region has been the petrochemical hub of the world and it will become the world’s largest producer and exporter of petrochemicals and plastics within the next few years. About 30-40% of the world’s petrochemical requirements have been supplied and met by GCC countries.

MRC

(chemeurope) -- BASF is opening a state-of-the-art production site for customer specific antioxidant blends (CSB) in the Kingdom of Bahrain. CSB are additives-blends individually tailored to meet individual customer needs and are an integral part of the portfolio BASF offers to the plastics industry.

“BASF’s investment in this new site demonstrates our steadfast commitment to support growing industries in the Middle East, while at the same time setting standards with regard to quality, safety and employee training,” said Michael Heinz, Member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF.

The new facility, which is based on proprietary CSB technology, will provide local production and services to the fast growing polymer market in the Middle East with special focus on key customers in the countries of the GCC. It comes in addition to the existing manufacturing agreement for CSB with Astra Polymer in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has been extended earlier this year.

The new facility is part of a strong antioxidants production network comprising Asia, Europe and the Americas, which will be further optimized once the new capacity comes on stream.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC

(plasteurope) -- Austrian plastics recycler and machinery supplier Starlinger (Vienna) has increased its capacities for post-consumer PET recycling machines and units for hard-to-grind material and high volume, low density waste with special processing requirements.

The company said the capacity of its machines is now over 27,000 t/y of rPET, with additional capacity added in extrusion lines, which have seen throughputs rise by 25% without increasing extruder diameter, through application of the company’s high capacity (HC) feature. Two 165 mm single-screw extruders are mounted in parallel on a main frame, while the upstream and downstream equipment is sized so that only one pre-drying unit, filter and pelletiser are required for the two extruders, reducing the cost of the installation.

The line produces the rPET that CCE is using in its PET packaging in the UK as a part of its sustainability programme, and has also produced the recycled content in the Coca-Cola PET bottles on sale during the London Olympics 2012. Starlinger said there is now an installed capacity of almost 330,000 t/y for “recoSTAR PET”.

Starlinger has installed over 100 “recoSTAR universal” lines for a variety of applications in recent years. Based on this experience, the company has introduced the “recoSTAR universal 165” with a production capacity of up to 10,000 t/y, suitable for processing a wide range of thermoplastics.

As MRC wrote earlier, Starlinger & Co. GmbH, Austrian manufacturer of machinery for woven plastic packaging production and plastics recycling, has opened a representative office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. From there, sales and after-sales service in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan will be organized.

MRC