EQUATE Petrochemical to invest USD250 billion by 2015.

MOSCOW (MRC) -- EQUATE Petrochemical Company said that Gulf petrochemical investments will exceed USD 250 billion by 2015, said Albawaba.

On the occasion of EQUATE’s sponsorship of the Gulf Petrochemicals & Chemicals Association (GPCA) 4th International Conference for Plastics Conversion (PlastCon 2013), EQUATE Procurement Director Muayad Al-Faresi said, "Currently, most petrochemical downstream industries in the entire Gulf are somewhat basic and not that sizable due to these countries being mainly exporters of basic petrochemical products."

Al-Faresi, who is also the Vice Chairman of GPCA Plastics Committee, added, "Having an ambitious and productive downstream industry requires having a suitable local market to consume the output or ensuring that these exports will find sustainable markets."

As MRC wrote earlier, Equate Petrochemicals Co said its 2012 net profit rose by 3.8% to USD1.09 billion compared to USD1.05 billion the previous year. The company, a joint venture between state-owned Petrochemical Industries and US major Dow Chemicals, said the rise in profit reflected a strong global demand for petrochemicals that pushed 2012 the company's sales to a record USD2.6 billion.

Euate is an international joint venture between Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), The Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Boubyan Petrochemical Company (BPC) and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC). Equate is the single operator of a fully integrated world-scale manufacturing facility producing over 5 million tons annually of high-quality petrochemical products, such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), styrene monomer, ethylene glycol and palaxylene, which are marketed throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sumitomo Chemical has established Sumitomo Chemical (Asia Pacific) in Singapore as its business support regional headquarters for the Southeast Asia, India and Oceania region, said Apic-online.

Currently, 22 Sumitomo Chemical group companies are operating in eight countries in this region, which is positioned as an important stronghold for the company. The new company will secure emerging opportunities, accelerate new undertakings and serve to have various business operations implemented more efficiently, Sumitomo said.

Yoshio Kawai, an associate officer of Sumitomo Chemical, has been appointed president of the new company.

As MRC wrote earlier, faced with declining domestic demand and a structural market shift towards rising feedstock imports, Sumitomo Chemical (Tokyo / Japan) has said it will shut down its 415,000 t/y ethylene cracker in Chiba / Japan during the next scheduled maintenance turnaround in September 2015. The company said the current business environment in Japan is unlikely to change in the future, adding that the only way it can enhance and ensure the continued sustainable operations of its domestic petrochemical business is to curtail costs and raise its activities in the field of higher value-added products.

Sumitomo Chemical is a Japanese based manufacturer of a diverse range of products, including basic chemicals, petrochemicals and plastics, fine chemicals, agricultural chemicals, IT-related chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Denki Kagaku Kabushiki Kaisha (Denka), in order to accelerate business development to meet market demand, has reorganized six business divisions into four units and renamed some of its departments, said Apic-online.

The former Electronic Materials, Styrene, Chemicals, Cement and Special Cement Additives, Living and Environmental Products and Medical Sciences Divisions have been transformed into the Elastomers & Performance Plastics, Infrastructure & Inorganic Materials, Electronics & Innovative Products and Life Sciences & Environment Products business units.

In addition, the Elastomers & Acetylene Black Dept. has been renamed the Organic Chemicals Dept., the Agri-Products Dept. is now the Fertilizer Dept., and the Adhesives & Solutions Dept. is the Tapes & Adhesives Dept.

As MRC wrote earlier, Denka Singapore plans to stop production of polystyrene (PS) in Jurong Island in the middle of April 2013 on 6-weeks' turnaround, which is expected to last until end of May.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Toyo Engineering has been jointly awarded with ENPPI, an engineering company under the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum, a contract to build a 400,000 tpa polyethylene plant in Egypt, reported Plastemart.

The new facility will be a part of Ethydco's petrochemical complex to be established in Alexandria, the Arab Republic of Egypt, and owned by ETHYDCO (The Egyptian Ethylene and Derivatives Company) under the investment law No. 8/1997 of Egypt. This will be the largest polyethylene plant in Egypt.

Toyo and ENPPI, based on the most advanced polyethylene technology of Univation Technologies of U.S., will execute the EPC and Commissioning under a lump-sum turnkey contract.

Toyo will lead the entire project execution, undertaking project management, basic engineering, and procurement of key equipment. ENPPI will be in charge of joint project management, a part of basic engineering, detailed engineering and procurement of other equipment and materials.

Reflecting growing demand for petrochemical products under economic growth in the country, the Egyptian Government announced its 20-year Petrochemicals Master Plan to develop the Petrochemicals Industry in 2001 under the sponsorship and supervision of the Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Co. (Echem). Hence, this project is to be executed as a part of the national Petrochemicals Master Plan. Toyo, through this project, will contribute to the development of the petrochemical industries in the country.

Both companies will execute the construction and commissioning in collaboration with PETROJET, an Egyptian construction company as a subcontractor. The contract amount is approximately USD 400 million and the plant is scheduled for start-up in early 2015.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, recently Toyo Engineering Corp. has received a contract to build a 15,000-tpy synthetic resin production plant in Houston, Texas, from Nippon Synthetic Chemical. Construction of the plant is scheduled to begin this summer and to be completed at the end of 2014. Earlier this year, Toyo Engineering was awarded a contract from Russia's TAIF-NK to provide services for detailed engineering and procurement on the oil refinery modernization project in Nizhnekamsk. Besides, in late 2012, the company had been awarded a contract by Malaysia's Petronas for the rejuvenation and revamp project of the No. 4 gas processing plant located in Kerteh, Terengganu.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexico's state-owned oil Pemex has signed a noncommercial agreement with Exxon Mobil to share technical and scientific information of mutual interest, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Pemex said in a press release that the five-year agreement renews the two oil companies' relations in matters of cooperation.

"The goal of this agreement is to define our collaboration in the areas of investigation, scientific development, technical and human resources in exploration, drilling, production, transportation and storage of hydrocarbons," the statement said.

Pemex said the accord did not represent any type of service agreement and did not involve compensation.

We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, in early 2013, Mexichem announced that PEMEX's Management Board authorized the co-investment between Pemex Petroquimica and Mexichem, seeking to bring viability and generate value in the country's VCM chain.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world"s second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).

Exxon Mobil is the world's largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, and produces in nonconventional areas like the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico on the U.S. side. Pemex is just starting exploration in the deep waters of the Mexican side of the Gulf.
MRC