Toyo Engineering wins a contract from Nippon for construction of Texas synthetic resin line

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Toyo Engineering Corp. has received a contract to build a 15,000-tpy synthetic resin production plant in Houston, Texas, from Nippon Synthetic Chemical, informed Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Construction of the plant is scheduled to begin this summer and to be completed at the end of 2014, Toyo Engineering said in a statement.

The value of the deal wasn't specified.

The project will add the third production line to Nippon Synthetic's two existing lines to meet rising global demand for plastics for food packaging, and to take advantage of less costly petrochemical feedstocks in the US where supply has been abundant, thanks to booming shale oil and gas production, the statement said.

The new line will produce comopolymers of ethylene and vinyl alcohol with the total capacity of 23,000 tonnes per year.

Several Japanese petrochemical companies have announced plans to invest in the US in response to the shale boom. As MRC reported previously, Idemitsu Kosan Co. and Mitsui & Co. said they will study feasibility of a petrochemical plant in the US. Dow Chemical has recently signed a long-term ethylene off-take agreement with a new Japanese joint venture that will allow the chemical producer to enhance its performance plastics franchise.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A large explosion occurred shortly after noon local time and forced local residents to evacuate their homes, said Marshall County Sheriff Kevin Cecil, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The pipeline automatically shut down after the explosion, and residents were allowed to return to their home at around 2:30 p.m.

Williams Cos. shut down a 24-inch natural gas pipeline after a rupture led to an explosion in rural West Virginia, the company said Friday.

A large explosion occurred shortly after noon local time and forced local residents to evacuate their homes, said Marshall County Sheriff Kevin Cecil.

The pipeline automatically shut down after the explosion, and residents were allowed to return to their home at around 2:30 p.m. ET, the sheriff added. No injuries were reported, the sheriff said.

Williams was investigating the cause of the accident, company spokesman Tom Droege said. Williams didn't immediately have details as to the pipeline's capacity or which market it was serving.

As MRC wrote earlier, Williams Energy is going to build a natural gas liquids and olefins processing facilities in the province, even as it aims to add a new petrochemical value chain. Three facilities are planned to tap the offgas produced from oil sands upgraders in Alberta.

Williams is one of North America's largest natural gas gatherers and processors. Williams also has a growing midstream business in Canada focused on processing oil sands off-gas into NGLs and olefins. It also has a domestic olefins business that provides customers in the petrochemical industry with a full suite of products and services.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP Plc will buy back USD8 billion of shares from investors after completing the sale of 50% of Russian oil producer TNK-BP, according to Bloomberg.

BP’s first buyback since 2008 will return the original amount invested in the venture 10 years ago, the London-based company said in a statement today. The sum is twice as much as Chief Financial Officer Brian Gilvary signaled last year would be enough to offset earnings per share lost from selling the stake in Russia’s third-largest producer.

TNK-BP, which accounted for about a quarter of BP’s output and a fifth of its reserves, paid the company USD19 billion in dividends since it was formed in 2003. BP’s initial investment in the venture was USD8 billion.

The deal to sell out of TNK-BP gives Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley a fresh start in Russia after a fractious 10- year partnership with a group of billionaires. BP shares have slumped since the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the company faces fines after a trial in New Orleans.

After selling its TNK-BP stake to Rosneft, BP will become the second-biggest investor in Russia’s largest oil company with a 19.8% shareholding. Following the buyback, which will take eight to 12 months to complete, BP will retain USD4.5 billion in cash from the deal.

According to Bob Dudle, BP and Rosneft are looking at offshore projects in Russia to work on together.

BP is one of the world's leading international oil and gas companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products for everyday items.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asia's top refiner China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) has announced that its net profit declined 12.8% last year as a result of higher crude-oil costs, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Net profit for the 12 months ended Dec. 31 fell to 63.88 billion yuan (USD10.3 billion) from 73.23 billion yuan in 2011 as higher crude-oil feedstock costs and restrictions on passing on price increases to customers hit its downstream operations, said Beijing-based Sinopec, Asia's largest refiner by capacity.

The earnings were slightly higher than the average 62.60 billion yuan forecast by 30 analysts polled earlier by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue rose 11% to CNY2.79 trillion from CNY2.51 trillion, thanks to higher contributions from its upstream exploration and production segment.

On Thursday, Sinopec's biggest rival, PetroChina Co, reported that its net profit for the period fell 13% due to continued losses in its natural gas, refining and chemical segments.

We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, in early 2013, BASF and Sinopec completed a joint feasibility study and took the next steps in the establishment of a world-scale isononanol (INA) plant in China. Besides, INEOS Phenol and Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical Company recently signed a letter of intent to study and negotiate a joint venture to build and operate a phenol/acetone manufacturing site at the Nanjing Chemical Industrial Park in Jiangsu Province, China.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC) is a large scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Sinopec is the worlds seventh biggest company by revenue.
It is one of the major petroleum companies in China. Sinopec's business includes oil and gas exploration, refining, and marketing; production and sales of petrochemicals, chemical fibers, chemical fertilizers, and other chemical products. SINOPEC is China's largest manufacturer and supplier of major petrochemical products. It is the second largest producer of crude oil in China. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The news that ExxonMobil is about to start up its massive new PE plant in Singapore has moved to the forefront in Southeast Asia's PE markets, said Apic-online.

Having started-up a new steam cracker with an ethylene capacity of 1 million tons/year at the Singapore petrochemical complex in early January (see MRC news), the producer is now preparing to bring its new 1.3 million tons/year PE plant on stream in early April. This huge capacity consists of one LLDPE plant and one HDPE/LLDPE swing plant, each with a capacity of 650,000 tons/year.

Apart from the cracker and the PE units, the complex also houses a 450,000 tons/year PP unit, a 300,000 tons/year elastomers unit and an aromatics extraction unit with a capacity to produce 340,000 tons/year of benzene. There is no recent news about the status of these plants.

Players in Southeast Asia are now closely watching the approaching start-up of these PE plants. Trading activity is already limited in the PE market as most buyers are sticking to the sidelines in anticipation of seeing further decreases for April.

A source from a major produce said, "We are receiving much lower bids from our customers. With bearish sentiment widely in place, we are also monitoring how the market will unfold after the start-up of the PE plants of Exxon. That’s why it is crucial to follow the market trend very closely."

"We do not expect to start seeing large scale offers from the new Exxon plant before May and we believe that several Middle Eastern producers will also need some time to restore normal production following their recent re-starts. Therefore, we believe that supply will be a bit tight in April and that this will prevent any large decreases," a trader based in Singapore reported.

The PE outlook for April is bearish in Southeast Asia, according to many market players. Players are closely tracking the supply outlook now that Exxon’s massive new PE plant in Singapore is about to come online, but players are not expecting to see any major supply increases immediately, at least for the coming month.
MRC