Gazprom to announce LNG project soon

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom will soon announce another "fundamentally new" liquefied natural gas (LNG) project," reported The Wall Street Journal with reference to Alexei Miller, the company's chief executive.

"We will have another fundamentally new project that you do not know of yet," he said.

Gazprom is already building a gas liquefaction plant in Vladivostok, eastern Russia, to supply the Asia-Pacific region. Companies from Japan, a large consumer of LNG, are in talks on purchasing supplies from the facility.

We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, Gazprom can return to the construction of LNG plant with the nominal capacity of 7 million tonnes in Primorsk (Leningrad region).

Gazprom's sales are likely to fall further in 2013 as weak economic conditions lead to continued low demand in Europe, the company's key market for natural gas. Russian gas production data for 2012 indicate that Gazprom's European and FSU gas sales fell slightly more than expected.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oriental Petrochemical Taiwan Co (OPTC) will be starting a purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant, according to Apic-Online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that commercial production at the plant is scheduled to commence in end-2014.

To be located in Taoyuan, Taiwan, the plant will have a production capacity of 1.5 million mt/year.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, China based - Xianglu Petrochemical plans to start a new purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant by the end of the third quarter. The 4.5 mln tpa PTA plant is being set up at an estimated investment of USD400 mln. The plant is presently under construction and is expected to be completed at the beginning of Q3 2013.

Besides, the largest supplier of plastics in Taiwan, Formosa Plastics Group, will resume its large-scope investment in construction of manufacturing base of ethylene in Ningbo, eastern China following the decision of the Chinese government to ease restrictions on foreign investment in naphtha cracking in the mainland.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In Egypt, players in the polymer markets report seeing an improvement in their businesses as limited locally held supplies coupled with approaching Ramadan have started to revive some buying interest amongst converters, as per Plastemart.

However, players continue to question the sustainability of the current situation given the weak economic conditions under which the country has been suffering. Players agree that supply levels for the various polymers are very limited owing to restricted import activities. Imports into the country have been affected for some time from the higher USD/EGP dollar parity which stems from a lack of dollar reserves ever since the political turmoil resulted in the main foreign currency sources drying up, such as tourism.

As a result of this situation, most players turned to the black market to meet their dollar needs at the expense of paying higher costs. Consequently, import trade has become more and more scarce and locally held polymer availability started to tighten. Meanwhile, recent shutdowns at the local PVC producer EPC and the HDPE producer SIDPEC also worsened the situation, although producers have been reported to have resumed their operations. In the PP market, the local producer EPPC has not been making offers for over two months and some players claim that the producer is not likely to offer before June. EPPC previously had commented that it was difficult to judge a fair price amidst ongoing parity issues.

A converter remarked, "We expect to see higher PVC prices when considering the limited availability. We hear from other market participants that they are struggling to get even import quantities in the amounts they ask."

In the PE market, a manufacturer remarked, "Local market levels are moving up but demand is still limited to the needs. Most converters opt to add some off grade materials to their purchases in order to balance their costs. Approaching Ramadan has revived the end product markets a bit, especially for film products, but we do not expect this situation to be sustainable when considering the current economic and political conditions inside the country. Meanwhile, hike expectations from the Middle Eastern producers for June also fuel sellers to hold onto their materials." A different player highlighted that the overall end product markets revived for the food packaging sector. "Demand has improved when compared to before but it might not be a long lived revival once Ramadan sets in."

As MRC wrote earlier, Chevron is in advanced talks to sell most of its downstream assets in Egypt and Pakistan in a sale that could be valued at around USD300 million. The company is conducting separate sale processes for its assets in both countries, the sources said in the report.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Plastics find major applications in electrical components and interior and exterior furnishings of automobiles. The majority of the application market for automotive plastics is under the purview of these two application segments accounting for almost 70% of the total consumption, as per Plastemart.

Plastics are also used in other parts in automobiles such as power trains, under the hood and chassis. The market for these applications is expected to show growth over the forecast period. Polypropylene (PP) has been the most widely used plastic in automobiles in recent years and is expected to hold sway for the entirety of the forecast period till 2018.

Polyurethane (PU), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyethylene (PE) are the other major plastic materials that have been in great demand in automobile manufacturing. Polycarbonate (PC), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polyamides (PA) such as nylons and other plastics including polyoxymethylene (POM) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are also in great demand in various automotive applications.

Biodegradable plastics are a more environment friendly option to plastics sourced from crude oil and derivatives. After a certain time period these plastics begin their degradation process and are easy to dispose without causing adverse effects on the environment. Starch based and polylactic acid (PLA) based biodegradable plastics have been the most common materials used in the automotive industry. Newer biodegradable plastics such as PHA, PCL and PBS are being used in small quantities for automotive applications. Biodegradable plastics have been analyzed separately as a potential opportunity, the estimates for these plastics have not been included in the overall market estimate and have been provided separately.

Traditionally, although North America and Europe have been the biggest markets for plastics in automobiles, Asia Pacific has been the largest consumer of automotive plastics in recent years. This can be attributed to the tremendous growth in the automotive industry in the region and the huge and apparent never-ending demand for automobiles in many economies of Asia Pacific. Europe has been the second largest market for automotive plastics followed by North America and Rest of the World (RoW).

As MRC wrote earlier, automotive production is a significant industry in Russia, directly employing around 600,000 people or 1% of the country's total work force. Russia was the world's 15th largest car producer in 2010, and accounts for about 7% of the worldwide production. In 2009 the industry produced 595,807 light vehicles, down from 1,469,898 in 2008 due to the global financial crisis. The largest companies are light vehicle producers AvtoVAZ and GAZ, while KAMAZ is the leading heavy vehicle producer. Eleven foreign carmakers have production operations or are constructing plants in Russia. As of August 2012 Russia is the largest car market in Europe

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Orpic — the Sultanate’s refining and petrochemicals flagship — will invest around USD3.6 bln in the development of a massive petrochemicals scheme that will form the cornerstone of an ambitious downstream plastics-based industry in Oman, said Plastemart.

When completed by 2018, the Sohar Plastics Project together with the refinery improvement venture, will produce one of the most efficient integrated refinery and petrochemical complexes in the world.

At the heart of the project is a steam cracker to be built adjacent to Orpic’s refinery at the Port of Sohar. An extraction plant to be built at Fahud, close to Oman’s gas production fields, will extract natural gas liquids (NGLs) from natural gas. These NGLs, together with the C2+ component, will be transported to steam cracker via a new 300-km pipeline that will run from Fahud to Sohar. Also as part of the plastics complex, Orpic will construct HDPE and LLDPE plants at Sohar, as well as undertake an expansion of its existing polypropylene plant.

When operational in 2018, the Sohar Plastics Project will produce 420,000 tpa of high density polyethylene (HDPE), 420,000 tpa of low density polyethylene (LDPE), 215,000 tpa of polypropylene, 168,000 tpd of additional gasoline, and 46,000 tpa of additional benzene. These petrochemicals, together with those produced by existing Orpic plants, will account for six of the seven principal building blocks necessary to sustain the growth of a strong downstream petrochemicals industry in Oman, Al Mahrouqi said.

Oman Oil Refineries and Petrochemical Companies (ORPIC) is in talks with two local banks to raise USD2.5 bln to expand its Sohar refinery and refinance a previous loan.

We remind that in late 2012 Orpic announced that its production of world class high quality polypropylene homopolymer at Sohar plant has crossed 1 million tonnes. This was a significant milestone for the polypropylene (PP) plant in Sohar, which began production in October 2006.
MRC