Williams and Shell form new joint venture for construction of large-scale gas processing complex in US

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Williams Partners has agreed to launch a new midstream joint venture with Shell to provide gas gathering and gas processing services for production located in Northwest Pennsylvania, informed Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to the company's announcement.

The venture will invest in both wet-gas handling infrastructure and dry gas infrastructure serving Marcellus and Utica Shale wells in the area.

The new venture, Three Rivers Midstream, has signed a long-term fee-based dedicated gathering and processing agreement for Shell's production in the area, including approximately 275,000 dedicated acres.

Three Rivers plans to construct a 200 million cubic feet per day cryogenic gas processing plant and related facilities, with the location to be determined at a later date.

The planned large-scale gas processing complex would be expandable as Three Rivers' business grows. The initial plant is expected to be placed into service by second quarter 2015.

"This new joint venture builds on our strategy of creating large-scale infrastructure solutions that will provide Shell and other producers with access to the best markets for their natural gas and natural gas liquids, whether they be in the Northeast or the Gulf Coast," said Alan Armstrong, CEO of Williams Partners' general partner.

"The system is expected to be connected to two major proposed developments in Pennsylvania -- Shell's proposed ethylene cracker (feasibility still being studied) in Beaver County and the proposed Williams-Boardwalk joint venture to develop the Bluegrass pipeline system that would deliver Marcellus and Utica liquids to the rapidly expanding Gulf Coast and export markets," he continued." The proposed Bluegrass pipeline is targeting a late 2015 in-service date.

Williams Partners' portion of initial capital expenditures on the Three Rivers plant, not including the gathering system, is expected to be approximately USD150 million. Subsequent capital investment is expected as the joint venture's business and scale increases.

As MRC reported earlier, in late March, Williams approved the construction of a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) facility in Alberta, Canada, the first and only one in Canada, which will allow Williams to significantly increase production of polymer-grade propylene from its Canadian operations.

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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Energy-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd. has posted a better-than-expected net profit that was also its biggest in six quarters, helped by an increase in refining margin, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Net profit for the fiscal fourth quarter ended on March 31 rose 32% to 55.89 billion rupees (USD1.03 billion) from 42.36 billion rupees a year earlier, the Mumbai-based company said.

Sales, however, fell 1.2% to 841.98 billion rupees from 851.82 billion rupees due to declining natural-gas production at its block off India's east coast.

The market was expecting Reliance to post a net profit of 54.26 billion rupees on sales of 916.27 billion rupees, according to the average of estimates from 18 analysts.

"The growth in earnings was largely driven by strong and improved refining margins during the year," Chairman Mukesh Ambani said in a statement.

The results show Reliance's dependence on its well-established oil-refining business to push its profit. At the same time, it is struggling to generate sufficient earnings from a prized natural-gas find off India's east coast--its revenue from the block fell 39% in the past quarter.

We remind that, as MRC reported previously, in October 2012, Reliance Industries announced its plans to expand capacity at its refineries in the western state of Gujarat. Earlier last year, Reliance had unveiled an USD18 billion investment plan for India over the next five years.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company's polymer production in 2010-11 (polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride) made 4,094 kilo tonnes. Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Jacobs Engineering Group received a frame agreement from BASF to provide engineering services at BASF’s integrated chemicals complex in Antwerp, Belgium, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Under the terms of the contract, Jacobs is providing process, piping and electrical/ instrumentation engineering services.

Officials did not disclose the contract value, but noted that the contract duration is three years.

BASF’s integrated approach to manufacturing, research, infrastructure, processes and management is known as Verbund, a German word meaning linked or integrated to the maximum degree. The Antwerp site is BASF’s second-largest Verbund site; it comprises more than 50 installations located on over two square miles.

"We look forward to continuing to support BASF’s Verbund principles at the site,” said Jacobs vice president Mark Bello.

As MRC wrote previously, Toyo Engineering had recently reached a comprehensive engineering partnership agreement with BASF for the Asia-Pacific region. The three-year agreement covers basic engineering, detailed engineering, procurement, construction management, and other project-related services in the region's petrochemical and chemical sectors.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia’s Sahara Petrochemicals plans to start up four joint venture plants over the next two years, completing the company’s initial expansion programme in Jubail, according to the company’s executive president, Mubasher reported.

The company, which started in 2004, will have ownership of 10 plants in the Eastern Province petrochemicals hub by the end of 2014, says Saleh Bahamdan.

Plants set to start up in 2013 include the USD500m chlor-alkali joint venture with Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden), which will produce 300,000 tonnes a year (t/y) of ethylene di-chloride and 250,000 t/y of caustic soda.

Another project expected to be commissioned is an acrylic acid plant, which Sahara jointly owns with Saudi group Tasnee and the US’ Dow Chemical. The complex has proposed nameplate capacities of 145,000 t/y of acrylic acid and 160,000 t/y of butyl acrylate.

The super-absorbent polymer (Sap) plant – a joint venture of Sahara and Tasnee subsidiaries and Germany’s Evonik Industries – is also on track for commissioning by the end of 2013.

A fourth plant to produce 330,000 t/y of n-butanol is expected to come onstream by the end of 2014. The project is a joint venture of Sahara, Tasnee, Sabic, and Sadara Chemical, the latter a partnership of Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical.

Bahamdan said that Sahara is studying the possibility of starting further projects in 2015 after the current wave of construction is completed.

"There is no limit to the opportunities in expansion," says the executive president. "We are looking to do more improvement on cost – to do more with less cost."

As MRC wrote earlier, Sahara Petrochemicals's annual consolidated financial results for the period ended 31 Dec 2012, amounted: net profit - SR204.45 million compared to SR 411.58 million for the previous year with a decrease of 50%. Earnings per share (EPS) during 2012 amounted to SR.47, based on that total share count 438.8 million, compared to SR 1.35 for the period of the previous year, where average shares counted 305.8 million, as the current shares number has increased compared with the previous year due to capital increase that took place in the 4th quarter of the previous year.

Sahara Petrochemicals performs participation and supervises foundation and establishing several limited liability companies in Al Jubail Industrial City with the participation of Saudi and foreign companies that have the modern skills and technologies; to produce and market its chemical and petrochemical products such as propylene, polypropylene, ethylene and polyethylene.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Inter Pipeline Fund has entered into a binding agreement with NOVA Chemicals Corporation involving the long term sale of ethane production from its Cochrane extraction plant, said Plastemart.

Under the new agreement, NOVA will purchase the majority of ethane volumes produced from Inter Pipeline's extraction facilities at Cochrane, Alberta. The contract extends to the end of 2024 and will significantly increase cash flow within Inter Pipeline's ethane extraction business unit. In 2012, Inter Pipeline's Cochrane extraction plant produced approximately 52,000 bpd, making it the largest ethane production facility in Canada. NOVA currently purchases a significant portion of ethane production from the Cochrane facility under an agreement due to expire at the end of 2014.

"Inter Pipeline is pleased to announce a long term agreement with one of Canada's leading petrochemical producers," commented David Fesyk, President and CEO. "The new contract includes improved pricing and commercial terms when compared to historical ethane contracts in Alberta. This reflects continued strong market demand for ethane in the Province, particularly from large, stable sources of long term supply."

The term of the new ethane sales agreement begins on January 1, 2015 and extends for a 10 year period. Inter Pipeline and NOVA have also agreed to amend certain terms of the existing ethane contract at Cochrane for the interim period through December 31, 2014. Under the terms of the new agreement, Inter Pipeline will receive a combination of fixed and variable revenue payments which include the recovery of operating costs. Inter Pipeline expects that over 50% of cash flow under the new contract will be derived from fixed payments which are not dependent on natural gas throughput levels at the Cochrane plant.

This will result in more stable and predictable cash flow. Under the current agreement, Inter Pipeline's cash flow is dependent on variable ethane production levels at the Cochrane plant. Structuring the new contract with a significantly higher fixed payment component also creates a stronger alignment of incentives for both parties to maximize natural gas flow rates through the Cochrane plant.

As MRC wrote earlier, the last world-scale polyethylene plant in North America was built by Nova and that was in 2000. All the announcements of new projects and expansions means a 40% increase in PE production just by the end of this decade. Nova Chemicals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Company, had said it planned to take advantage of emerging feedstock supply from Marcellus and expand its ethylene and polyethylene capacities.

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