Westlake Chemical increases quarterly dividend by 20%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The board of directors of Westlake Chemical Corporation has declared a dividend of 22.5 cents per share, an increase of 20% from the 18.75 cents per share paid in the second quarter of 2013, according to the company's statement.

The increased dividend will be payable on September 25, 2013, to stockholders of record on September 10, 2013.

This is the 36th successive quarterly dividend that Westlake has declared since completing its initial public offering in August 2004.

As MRC wrote previously, in March 2013, Westlake Chemical agreed to acquire the PVC pipe and fittings unit of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain SA's CertainTeed Corp. for USD175 million. CertainTeed's pipe and foundation group produces PVC pipe and fittings for municipalities, water wells, mining, agriculture and irrigation.

Westlake Chemical Corporation is a manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products with headquarters in Houston, Texas. The company's range of products includes ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, caustic, VCM, PVC and PVC pipe and specialty components, windows, and fence. Westlake Chemical's second-quarter 2013 profit shot up 26% year over year to USD145.8 million as the company gained from lower cost natural-gas based ethylene production stemming from North American shale gas and oil production
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Munich-based chemical group WACKER has registered a further 67 substances with the European regulatory framework for chemicals REACH (registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemicals, reported the company on its site.

The required substance dossiers were recently submitted on time to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki, Finland. WACKER thereby meets the requirements for continuing production of these substances and exporting them to other EU countries. The term for registering substances produced in quantities of between 100 and 1,000 metric tons expired at the end of May.

In 2009, WACKER already submitted the first dossiers for "phase-in" substances produced in amounts of 1,000 metric tons or more annually. By the end of the first registration phase in November 2010, the number had increased to 86. In May of this year, a further 67 assessments were added. About half of the substance dossiers to be submitted to the European Chemicals Agency have thus been registered.

"This ensures that we can continue to not only produce these substances and the products manufactured from them at our sites within the EU, but also import them into other EU countries," said WACKER Executive Board member Auguste Willems, marking the successful conclusion of the second registration phase.

REACH legislation, which came into force in 2007, governs the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemicals within the European Union. REACH imposes high requirements on the manufacturers, importers and users of chemical products. All substances on the European market that are produced or imported in annual quantities exceeding one metric ton must be registered and evaluated.

The third and final phase of registration of phase-in substances has now begun. By June 2018, all substances produced in amounts up to 100 metric tons annually must be registered. WACKER is preparing 160 substance dossiers for this phase.

As MRC informed earlier, in June 2013, BASF, the largest diversified chemical company in the world, successfully completed the second phase of registration for REACH under EU chemical law. In this phase, BASF submitted around 550 substance dossiers to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) - more than any other company. By the end of the final transition period in the year 2018, BASF is expecting a total of approximately 3,500 registrations.

Wacker Chemie AG is a worldwide operating company in the chemical business, founded 1914. The company is controlled by the Wacker-family holding more than 50 percent of the shares. The corporation is operating more than 25 production sites in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The product range includes silicone rubbers, polymer products like ethylene vinyl acetate redispersible polymer powder, chemical materials, polysilicon and wafers for semiconductor industry.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Rosneft and ExxonMobil are progressing on their proposed LNG project in the Russian Far East with the launch of the contractor selection process for design and engineering work, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Rosneft and ExxonMobil said that in 2013 and 2014, they plan to complete design work, including selection of a liquefaction technology and identification of major equipment requirements.

Also in that timeframe, the companies plan to perform engineering surveys and develop front-end engineering and design (FEED) and Russian Proyekt documentation for the LNG plant, hydro-technical marine facilities and a source gas pipeline.

“Rosneft’s offshore license areas hold massive hydrocarbon resource potential, most of which is natural gas," said Rosneft president Igor Sechin. "Given the fact that offshore fields are difficult to reach and are not connected to the national gas supply system, the most efficient way to monetize these resources is to liquefy the natural gas and sell the LNG in export markets."

Capacity of the LNG project to be located on Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East is expected to be 5 million tpy, subject to further expansion. The liquefaction plant, the launch of which is scheduled for 2018, will receive natural gas from Rosneft’s reserves in the Far East and other Sakhalin gas reserves.

We remind that, as MRC informed previously, in May 2013, Rosneft and Mitsui signed an agreement to jointly develop the massive Far East Petrochemical Company (FEPCO) project. FEPCO, a subsidiary of Rosneft, is developing the project. Processing capacity of the petrochemical complex is planned at 3.4 million tpy of hydrocarbon feedstock, predominantly naphtha. The capacity of ethylene and propylene production unit is planned at 2 million tpy. The complex is expected to be started up in 2017.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South African petrochemicals producer Sasol (Johannesburg) recently sold all of its shares in its Iranian joint venture, Arya Sasol Polymer Company, said Plasteurope.

According to a company media release, the shares, with a book value of ZAR 2.3 bn (EUR 169m) were purchased by Main Street 1095, a South African subsidiary of an Iranian investor. According to Plasteurope.com's database, Polyglobe, Sasol has a gas-based ethylene production facility in Assaluyeh, located along the Persian Gulf, with a capacity of 1m t/y as well as a downstream polymerisation facility with a capacity of 300,000 t/y of both LDPE and HDPE.

With the 16 August transaction of sales now complete, the South Africans say they now no longer have any investments in Iran. Since the end of 2011, the petrochemical company had constantly leaked plans concerning its intention to divest of its investments in the country, which its Iranian partners denied each time. In the end, the pressure to dissolve its business interests in the Islamic Republic was apparently too much. At the beginning of 2013, the American not-for-profit, high-profile advocacy group, "United Against Nuclear Iran" (UANI, New York) allegedly put mounting pressure on the South African company stating it would have difficulties realising any plans to make a stake in the US shale gas revolution in terms of building any local production facilities. With its Persian exit now official, the road to the US shale gas boom appears to be free of any road blocks.

As MRC wrote, French engineering giant Technip has formed an alliance with South African company Sasol covering the latter's future gas-to-liquids projects. The front-end engineering alliance also allows for Technip participation during the execution stage of future GTL projects.

Sasol Limited is an integrated energy and chemical company that began in Sasolburg, South Africa in 1950. It develops and commercialises technologies and builds and operates world-scale facilities to produce a range of product streams including liquid fuels, chemicals.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian Reliance Industries and UK supermajor BP have made a deep-water gas condensate discovery in the Cauvery basin, off India's east coast, said Upstreamonline.

The discovery was made in the CYIIID5-S1 well, on Block CY-DWN-2001/2, which was drilled to a total depth of 5731 metres, in a water depth of 1743 metres, to explore Mesozoic-aged reservoirs.

Preliminary evaluation of well data and fluid samples indicated the well intersected a gross hydrocarbon column of 143 meters in the reservoir interval.

A drill stem test was carried out and the well flowed at a rate of 35.2 million cubic feet of gas per day and 413 barrels per day of condensate, on a 20.6 millimetre choke.

The Government of India and India's Directorate General of Hydrocarbons have been notified of the discovery, which has been named D-56.

Mike Daly, BP's vice president of exploration, commented: "Following the discovery on block KG D6 announced in May, it’s another demonstration of the potential of the resource base that we anticipated when BP entered the original transaction with (Reliance) in 2011."

In May BP, Reliance and Niko Resources announced in late May that they had made a “significant gas and condensate discovery” at their Krisha Godavari D6 deep-water block off eastern India.

Spud in March, the KGD6-MJ1 probe was drilled in a water depths of 1024 metres to a total depth of 4509 metres.

It aimed to explore the prospectivity of a Mesozoic Synrift Clastic reservoir lying more than 2000 metres below the already producing reservoirs in the D1-D3 gas fields.

The well hit a gross gas and condensate column of about 155 metres in Mesezoic reservoirs. On a drill stem test, the well – now named discovery D-55 - flowed 30.6 million standard cubic feet per day and liquid rate of 2121 barrels a day with a choke of 36/64".

As MRC wrote before, the engineering work under this contract is for the construction of offsites and utilities facilities, according to Jacobs officials. Officials did not disclose the contract value. The new cracker complex is part of a major expansion of Reliance’s petrochemical capacities at Jamnagar and other sites in India.

MRC