Westlake Chemical appoints new Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Westlake Chemical Corporation has announced that Mr. Ben Ederington has joined Westlake Chemical as Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary reporting to Albert Chao, President & CEO, according to the company's press release.

Mr. Ederington will replace Mr. Stephen Wallace, who has announced he will retire at the end of the year. Mr. Wallace will serve as Vice President and Special Counsel reporting to Mr. Chao until his retirement.

Mr. Ederington joins Westlake from LyondellBasell (LBI) where he most recently was Associate General Counsel and where previously he held a variety of increasingly responsible legal positions involving LBI's polymers, chemicals and refining businesses, strategic transactions, M & A and joint ventures and governmental affairs. Prior to joining LBI he was in private practice with Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, DC, where he practiced international and technology law.

Albert Chao, President and CEO, stated, "We are pleased to have a legal and chemical industry executive with Ben's depth of experience and credentials as our new General Counsel. We are confident he will make an important contribution to the ongoing growth and development of Westlake. We also express our appreciation to Stephen Wallace for his meaningful contribution to the growth of the company and for his important and sound legal guidance over the last decade."

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, Westlake Chemical has 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 resin and PVC building products including pipe and specialty components, windows and fence.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow Elastomers, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, will soon break ground on its planned world-scale NORDEL EPDM (ethylene propylene-diene terpolymer) facility in Plaquemine, La., which will utilize the company’s newest proprietary catalyst technology to enable products with high Mooney viscosity, according the company's press release.

"The planned NORDEL facility will position Dow as the only advanced post-metallocene producer globally, enabling a broader range of EPDM solutions for our customers, while also meeting increasing global demand for our current EPDM applications," said Kim Ann Mink, Ph.D., Business President, Dow Elastomers, Electrical & Telecommunications.

The facility, which will service customers globally, is expected to come online in 2016 and will leverage Dow’s comprehensive investment plan to serve its downstream businesses through increased ethylene and propylene production in the US Gulf Coast and to connect the company's US operations into feedstock opportunities from increasing supplies of shale gas.

Dow is the only EPDM producer globally that has announced expansion in the highly advantaged region.

Launched in 1963, NORDEL was touted for delivering breakthrough properties and benefits that natural rubber and even some synthetics at the time lacked, including: high resistance to ozone; serviceability across a broad range of temperatures; chemical and abrasion resistance; and durability against sunlight and weathering.

As MRC reported earlier, in March 2013, Dow Chemical signed a long-term ethylene off-take agreement with a new Japanese joint venture that will allow the chemical producer to enhance its performance plastics franchise. The joint venture is being formed between Japanese companies Idemitsu Kosan and Mitsui & Co. to construct and operate a Linear Alpha Olefins unit on the US Gulf Coast.

Dow Elastomers is the largest global producer of metallocene EPDM, with more than 50 years of experience in a variety of application and market segments including transportation, building and construction, wire and cable and general rubber products.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber. In 2012, Dow had annual sales of approximately USD57 billion. The сompany's more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 188 sites in 36 countries across the globe.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema, the world’s second largest producer of organic peroxides, and Saudi investment company Watan Industrial Investment have signed an agreement for the construction of an organic peroxide production site on the Al Jubail platform, Saudi Arabia, according to the company's press release.

The facility, requiring an investment of about USD 30 million, will be the very first organic peroxide plant in the Middle East region.

This investment will enable Arkema to bolster its leading position in organic peroxides, and illustrates its strategy to expand its High Performance Materials segment and strengthen its presence in fast-growing countries, where the Group aims to achieve 30% of its sales by 2016.

Organic peroxides are widely used as polymerization initiators in the thermoplastic industry. This new world-scale plant will be able to supply all petrochemical players in the Middle East and support their strong growth anticipated by 2020 by offering them a secure and flexible local supply service. Production will focus in particular on organic peroxides stored at low temperature, with safe and secure logistics services provided by a local player.

As MRC informed previously, Arkema, a France-based chemical manufacturer, has recently declared a project to divest its tin stabilizer business to PMC Group, a New Jersey-based performance plastics and chemicals manufacturer. This planned divestment of organometallic products includes Fascat catalysts, Thermolite tin stabilizers and fine chemicals. Therefore, Arkema strives to refocus its activities on expanding core specialty businesses. On the basis of tin chemistry, Thermolite heat stabilizers are specifically utilized in the manufacturing pf PVC, which is mainly used in the construction sector, whereas Fascat catalysts are utilized in automotive specialties as well as in other applications.

The Arkema - Watan Industrial Investment joint venture will be majority held by Arkema, with the latter overseeing the operational management and sales of the site. The plant’s startup is scheduled in the first months of 2015.

Watan Industrial Investment is a private Saudi company established in 2007 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Watan core business is investing in industrial projects which cover different sectors benefitting from the continuous growth of the Saudi economy specially in chemicals and petrochemicals. Watan is presently active in the field of industrial gases in venture with a large US producer and supplies the largest Saudi petrochemical companies.

Arkema is a leading European supplier of chlorochemicals and PVC. Kynar and Kynar Flex are registered trademarks of Arkema Inc.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Stavrolen (group Lukoil) resumed production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) on Saturday, 5, October, following unscheduled shutdown on 1, October, according to MRC.

The shutdown was caused by the technical problems at the production of ethylene.

Stavrolen' s production capacity of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene is 300,000 tonnes/year and 120,000 tonnes/year respectively.

The company produced about 205,000 tonnes of HDPE and 85,000 tonnes of PP in the eight months of this year.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A Brazilian federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against No. 2 US oil company Chevron Corp after approving a negotiated settlement, a decision that closes a nearly two-year legal battle over an oil spill in November 2011, reported Reuters.

Brazilian prosecutors sought 40 billion reais (USD18 billion) in damages from Chevron and offshore drilling contractor Transocean Ltd for a 3,600-barrel leak in the Frade offshore oil field Chevron operates northeast of Rio de Janeiro.

Prosecutors also filed criminal charges against the companies and 17 of their employees. A judge rejected those charges, but prosecutors are appealing.

The dismissal came after Judge Raffaele Felice Pirro of the federal court in Rio de Janeiro accepted an "adjustment of conduct" deal with Chevron that commits the company to spending about 300 million reais (USD135 million) in compensatory activities. Chevron and the government agencies that signed the accord said Transocean had no responsibility for the spill.

Both Chevron and Transocean welcomed the decision in short statements from their press offices. Chevron added that 95.2 million reais, or about a third of the initial settlement value, will be spent on social and environmental programs approved by prosecutors, the ANP and environmental protection agency Ibama.

We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, Chevron was cited for fines worth almost USD1 million stemming from a major fire at its refinery in Richmond, Calif. A fire broke out in a crude distillation unit (CDU) at Chevron's 245,000 bpd Richmond refinery near San Francisco, California, forcing the closure of much of the facility. The fire lasted for hours, sending plumes of black smoke over the San Francisco Bay and causing an estimated 15,000 local residents to visit emergency rooms. Chevron replaced pipes in at least one other US refinery based on a check of facilities following the August fire, since on-going investigations of the accident focused on corroded pipes found in the crude-distillation unit, where the fire started.

Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States, and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining, marketing and transport; chemicals manufacturing and sales; and power generation. Chevron is one of the world's six "supermajor" oil companies.
MRC