Caustic soda plant to be restarted by Tosoh

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tosoh is likely to restart its caustic soda plant following a maintenance turnaround, said Apic-online.

A source in Japan informed that the plant is planned to be restarted in end-June 2013. It was shut in mid-May 2013. Located in Nanyo, Japan, the plant has a production capacity of 1.125 million mt/year.

As MRC wrote earlier, Tosoh's proposed restructuring of operations in Nanyo could lead to a net loss of 320,000 tpa of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) capacity, thereby tightening feedstock supply to the polyvinylchloride (PVC) industry. Almost one year after a fire seriously damaged its complex in Nanyo, Tosoh Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) has touted plans to raise output at the site"s number 3 vinyl chloride monomer plant. The building phase of the 200,000 t/y capacity expansion was to kick off in November last year, with completion scheduled for October 2014.

Tosoh is one of the largest chlor-alkali manufacturers in Asia. The company supplies the plastic resins and an array of the basic chemicals that support modern life. Tosoh's petrochemical operations supply ethylene, polymers, and polyethylene.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian giant Comperj refining and petrochemical complex under construction in Rio de Janeiro will only begin operating in August 2016, more than a year behind the current schedule, said Bnamericas.

The most recent target was for the first refining train at Comperj to begin operating by April 2015.
Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem is currently analyzing its participation in Comperj and will decide in 2014 what new production capacity to construct at the site, using natural gas from Brazil's offshore oil fields as a feedstock.

According to press reports, Foster said the latest delay was due to alterations to the original project and problems in obtaining the environmental licenses needed.

MRC wrote before, Brazilian environmental regulators will join state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) in appealing an injunction that halted work on a major USD8 billion Comperj refinery project in Rio de Janeiro state. Petrobras, Inea and federal environmental regulator Ibama will appeal the decision together, said Marilene Ramos, president of Rio state environmental regulator Inea.

The initial target for the start of operations at Comperj was 2011.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. or Petrobras is a semi-public Brazilian multinational energy corporation headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest company in the Southern Hemisphere by market capitalization and the largest in Latin America measured by 2011 revenues.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan and Europe will start a joint study about liquefied natural gas, seeking ways to lower prices of the liquid fuel, said Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Senior officials of the European Commission and METI will have a first meeting of the study in Brussels later Friday, a METI official said.

"Prices of LNG under long-term contracts are more or less linked to oil in both regions, though we are not sure if it's reasonable (to price LNG this way)," said Koji Yamashita, the METI official set up the meeting.

Supply and demand situations should decide prices, and the two sides will study how they can eliminate oil-link pricing and the possible ramifications by such an elimination, Mr. Yamashita said in a telephone conversation.

Since the Fukushima accident in March 2011, Japan's demand for LNG has risen sharply as utilities ran gas-fired power plants on full steam to make up for idle nuclear power capacity.

As a result, the country's annual demand for LNG rose 23% and the bill surged by 75% in the next two years, helping widen Japan's trade deficit, data from the government show.

As MRC wrote before, Japan increased its reliance on Russia for its fossil fuel imports in 2012, as the Asian country, which is experiencing continuous outage of nuclear power, bought more hydrocarbons from the energy-producing giant to operate its thermal power stations at full capacity. Japan's imports of liquefied natural gas from Russia rose 17% to 8.3 million metric tons last year, while its imports of Russian crude oil increased 10% to 10.02 million kiloliters, or about 172,000 bpd.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Malaysia's state energy company Petronas or Petroliam Nasional Bhd. has announced that first-quarter net profit slipped 4.7% from a year earlier but 2013 earnings may still be steady on higher output, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The company is Malaysia's only Fortune 500 company and the Southeast Asian country's most profitable enterprise. Petronas pays about USD10 billion in annual dividends to the government, making it the single largest contributor to state coffers.

Net profit for the three months ended March 31 was 17.56 billion ringgit (USD5.7 billion) compared with MYR18.43 billion a year earlier, Petronas said in a statement. Revenue rose 1.9% in the period to MYR76.68 billion from MYR75.25 billion.

Petronas's operation in South Sudan resumed production in March this year after 15 months of disruption, although contribution to earnings will be marginal this year. Output will pick up from 2014, Shamsul Azhar Abbas, president and group chief executive of Petronas, said at an earnings conference.

As MRC informed previously, German chemical giant BASF SE and Malaysia's Petronas Chemicals Group announced late April 2013 that they will invest USD500 million to build an aroma ingredients production facility in the eastern state of Pahang. The project is part of an existing joint venture between BASF and the petrochemical arm of Malaysia's state energy company Petroliam Nasional Bhd that stretches back to 1997. BASF holds 60% in the joint venture, with the rest owned by Petronas. The partners plan to produce citral, L-menthol and citronellol--ingredients used to make fragrances and flavors that will end up as personal care and food products -- that will cater to demand from the Asia Pacific. Initial production will start in 2016.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The board of Russian oil firm TNK-BP Holding, controlled by state-controlled Rosneft, has recommended the company pay no dividends for 2012 in a move that investors have warned could damp interest in Russian stocks, reported The Wall Street Journal with reference to TNK-BP's announcement.

As MRC wrote previously, Rosneft acquired a 95% stake in TNK-BP, Russia's third-largest oil company, on March 21 from BP PLC (BP) and its partners, a group of Soviet-born tycoons.

Minority shareholders in TNK-BP had hoped for a share swap, a large dividend or a buyout on similar terms to the deals, worth a total of $60 billion. But Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin has said there will be no buyout. He said May 23 that dividends will be paid out at 25% of net profit from March 21, when Rosneft's deals to take over TNK-BP closed. The company's previous owners are responsible for any dividends for before that date, he said.

Rosneft said Thursday it is setting up a committee to work with minority shareholders.

After buying TNK-BP, Rosneft has become the world's largest public oil company. The company accounts for about 5% of global oil production, and its proven reserves by the international category will exceed 5 billion tonnes of oil equivalent.
MRC