Shell seeks ethane through bidding for proposed Beaver County cracker

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shell has started a two-month bidding period to solicit ethane commitments from Marcellus Shale operators for its proposed Beaver County cracker, according to Plastemart.

Ethane, a natural gas liquid found in shale gas in western Pennsylvania, can be turned into ethylene.

Shell is almost a year away from building the cracker. If Shell Chemical decides to build the first world-scale cracker in the Marcellus region, some of its ethane would come from Shell's own oil and gas production in the region.

In addition, commitments have been secured from Consol Energy Inc., Noble Energy Inc., Seneca Resources Corp., and Hilcorp Energy Co. However, the company continues to look for more and the bidders' responses will play a role in whether the company decides to go ahead with the project. It has twice extended its land option agreement with Horsehead Corp. for the property in Monaca that Shell is evaluating for the cracker.

"Securing additional ethane supply is one of the key components in determining the next steps as part of the ongoing site evaluation process," Kimberly Windon, a spokeswoman for Shell, said.

As MRC informed earlier, Shell announced in mid-November that it will upgrade its petrochemical plant in Singapore to meet rising demand for ethylene in Asia. The upgrade will increase the plant's capacity to produce olefins and aromatics industrial chemicals used to make plastic, paint and other products by more than 20%. The upgrade will take place during the next maintenance turn-around of the ethylene cracker.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sasol, the world's largest producer of motor fuel from coal, has announced that its wholly owned Sasol Investment subsidiary entered into a definitive sale and share purchase agreement pursuant to which Main Street 1095 Ltd., a South African subsidiary of an Iranian investor, completed the acquisition of 100% of the shares of SPI International (SPII), reported GV.

SPII is the indirect owner of a 50% interest in Arya Sasol Polymer Co., Sasol’s joint venture in Iran with Pars Petrochemical (Assaluyeh, Iran).

As described in Sasol's most recent trading statement, the fair value of Sasol’s investment in Arya was written down to R2.3 billion. This was based on its assessment of the fair value of Arya as well as the accounting requirement to recognise operating profits of approximately R1.6 billion for the second half of the 2013 financial year.

Arya Sasol Polymers operates a 1-million-tpy ethane cracker, a 300,000-tpy low-density polyethylene plant (LDPE) and a 300,000-tpy high-density polyethylene plant (HDPE) in Iran’s Pars Special Economic Energy Zone.

As a result of this transaction, Sasol has no on-going investment in Iran.

As MRC wrote earlier, INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA and Sasol has recently announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the intent to form a joint venture to manufacture high-density polyethylene. The envisioned facility would produce 470,000 tonnes per annum of bimodal HDPE using Innovene S process technology licensed from INEOS Technologies. The intention is to produce a limited number of grades allowing high grade efficiencies.

Sasol Limited is an integrated energy and chemical company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. It develops and commercialises technologies, including synthetic fuels technologies, and produces different liquid fuels, chemicals and electricity.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- PolyOne Corporation, a premier provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions, has announced the hiring of Michael A. Garratt as senior vice president, president of Performance Products and Solutions, according to the company's press release.

Mr. Garratt replaces industry veteran and respected PolyOne leader Robert M. Rosenau, who has decided to retire following an exemplary 37-year career.

With more than 20 years of experience in the specialty polymer sector, Mr. Garratt joins PolyOne from Marmon Utility, a Berkshire Hathaway company, where he served as president. Prior to joining Marmon, Mr. Garratt served as chief operating officer of Excel Polymers, where he led a successful business turnaround, resulting in improvements in revenue and profitability.

Mr. Garratt's chemical career began with The Dow Chemical Company, where he served in commercial and marketing roles in Canada and the United States. For 10 years he worked for DuPont Dow Elastomers, a global joint venture, where he held market development and product management positions, culminating in a regional commercial leadership role for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while based in Geneva, Switzerland and Bad Homburg, Germany.

"The addition of Michael to our executive team further strengthens our company and brings even more global expertise to drive our strategy and growth objectives," said Robert M. Patterson, executive vice president and chief operating officer.

As MRC informed previously, PolyOne will realign its North American manufacturing assets to better serve customers, improve efficiency, and deliver previously announced synergy-related cost savings in connection with its March 2013 acquisition of Spartech Corporation. Over the next several months, the company will close six manufacturing plants and relocate production to other PolyOne facilities. These actions are expected to be completed by the end of 2014 and generate annualized pre-tax savings of approximately USD25 millionin 2015.

PolyOne Corporation, with 2012 revenues of USD2.9 billion, is a global provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions with operations in specialty polymer formulations, color and additive systems, polymer distribution and specialty vinyl resins.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco plans to buy a 30% stake in a petrochemicals project at Dahej in India and is currently negotiating the purchase with ONGC Petro additions Ltd (OPAL), reported The Economic Times.

The agreement will be beneficiary for Aramco as oil exporters are seeking markets in Asia due to increased oil and gas production in the Americas leading to lower imports.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, Saudi Aramco Total Refinery and Petrochemicals Company (Satorp) expects its new refinery at Jubail Industrial City to be fully operational in December 2013. Saudi Aramco and France's Total are building the SR52.5 billion Jubail facility as part of a push by the world's top oil exporter to almost double its refining capacity.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world's most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Evonik Industries, the German specialty chemicals company, has opened the newly expanded plant for the production of premium raw materials, additives and ingredients for the cosmetic and household care industries in a solemn ceremony in Bekasi, Indonesia, according to the company's press release.

With this investment, Evonik is increasing its capacity for surfactants and esters used in hair care, skincare, and industrial applications.

"As a global supplier to multinational but also Indonesian companies in the personal and household care industries, meeting our customers’ needs is of essence to us," outlined Lauren Kjeldsen, Business Director Asia Pacific for Evonik’s Personal Care Business Line. "Expanding our manufacturing footprint in Asia marks another step to better serve our customers in the region. The additional capacity will allow us to shorten lead times and optimize the supply chain with regional inventory."

The range of raw materials and additives provided by Evonik’s Indonesian plant includes emulsifiers, secondary surfactants, emollients, conditioners, thickeners, and pearlizing agents. In addition, the attached analytical and technical service lab offers personal and household care manufacturers continuous support with their formulations as well as updates and trainings on new additives, active ingredients and products.

As MRC reported earlier, Evonik Industries has recently announced a significant expansion of its Jurong Island, Singapore oil additives plant, to be completed in early 2015. With ongoing improvement and debottlenecking projects scheduled to be finalized during the first half of 2014, these optimizations and the planned expansion will nearly double the capacity of the oil additives plant in Singapore.

Evonik Industries is an industrial corporation in Germany and one of the world's leading specialty chemicals companies. Company's specialty chemicals activities focus on high-growth megatrends, especially, health, nutrition, resource efficiency, and globalization, and on entering attractive future-oriented markets. In 2012 Evonik generated sales of EUR13.6 billion and an operating result (adjusted EBITDA) of EUR2.6 billion.
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