Reliance Industries raises Jamnagar expansion deal with Linde by 50%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries (RIL) has significantly raised the scope and worth of its earlier pact with Munich-based Linde AG, parent of industrial gases producer Linde India, by 50% to €700 million (about Rs 5,900 crore), as per Plastemart.

Reliance Industries’ ongoing refinery expansion project at Jamnagar includes plans to produce synthetic gas from coal. As MRC wrote previously, in a deal signed in April, Linde’s engineering division would supply four large air separation units for the production of gaseous oxygen and another two to produce high-purity oxygen to the ethylene glycol facilities in Jamnagar.

To treat the synthesis gas generated during this gasification process, Linde would also deliver two acid gas removal units.

Reliance is also building one of the world’s largest ethylene crackers taking advantage of refinery integration at Jamnagar. This project will be commissioned in H2-2016 and would nearly double the ethylene capacity to 3.3 mln tpa.

We remind that earlier this year RIL announced that it would invest over Rs 100,000 crore in expansion of its petrochemical capacities and adding value to its refining business. Besides, in October last year the company unveiled its plans to expand capacity at its refineries in the western state of Gujarat.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company's polymer production in 2010-11 (polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride) made 4,094 kilo tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of polycarbonate (PC) to Ukraine increased by 15% to 3,600 tonnes in January-October 2013 compared to the same period last year, according to MRC DataScope.
Imports of PC-granulate have been rising since January. The largest share of imports (87%) occurred for such European countries as Germany, Spain, Netherlands and Belgium.

Injection moulding grades accounted for 79% of the total imports. The major market players in the polycarbonate market in Ukraine were such converters as Eudjin Ltd, Spetztekhosnastka, Technology Klozhers, Graif Ukraine.

Radka Ukraine and Alpha-Plast were the largest traders of PC in Ukraine over the reported period. The largest importers of PC to Ukraine over the first ten months of the year were Sabic with a share of 32%, Bayer (30%), Dijmex Europe and Styron (each for 11%).

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Prices for North American polyvinyl chloride (PVC) continue to increase, following a brief drop. Price offers for US resin for CIS countries in the second half of November rose to the level of USD1,000/tonne CFR, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

The decrease in export prices of US PVC began in mid-September and by the end of October prices dropped to the year minimum - USD950-965/tonne CFR St Petersburg and CIF Odessa. But the price trend has changed in November, with offers for the second half of November heard in the range of USD985-1000/tonne CFR St Petersburg, and USD990-1010/tonne CIF Odessa, for K65 PVC.

Price offer for K70 PVC started from USD1010/tonne CFR on the back of reduced export quotas. Suppliers of North American PVC explained the the price rise by increasing demand from Asian markets, particularly China.

At the same time, there is no certainty that prices for December shipment will exceed USD1,000/tonne CFR.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ineos has opend one million tonne deep-sea ethylene terminal at Ineos Oxide, Zwijndrecht, Belgium, according to the company's statement.

The new deep-sea terminal, at the heart of the second largest petrochemical region in the world, is now fully operational.

Hans Casier, CEO Ineos Oxide says: "This is a major step for INEOS which will secure the long term viability of its business located at the Antwerp site and connected along side the ARG pipeline. The terminal allows us to access ethylene from world markets at competitive costs, which means we can continue to compete successfully on a global basis."

Capable of unloading shipments of ethylene from the world’s largest ethylene vessels, the terminal directly supplies the needs of both those INEOS ethylene derivative plants located directly at the Antwerp site and those which are connected along the ARG ethylene pipeline, which links Antwerp to Koln and the Ruhr industrial areas.

Ineos has a very large demand for ethylene, supplied substantially by its own production from several steam crackers across Europe. To balance the shortfall the company has traditionally bought ethylene from other companies that sit on the ARG pipeline. The new one million tonne deep sea terminal now presents an opportunity for INEOS to import competitively priced ethylene from around the world, thereby improving its flexibility.

Ineos Oxide, part of the INEOS Group of Companies, is a leading producer of ethylene oxide and ethylene oxide derivatives, propylene oxide and propylene oxide derivatives, plus a range of solvents and speciality chemicals, with production facilities in Antwerp Belgium, Koln Germany, Lavera France, Plaquemine Louisiana, Freeport Texas and Hull in the United Kingdom.

As MRC wrote previously, las year chemicals major Ineos signed an agreement to secure ethane from the US that it will use as a feedstock to operate its steam crackers in Europe. It agreed a long-term deal with Range Resources Corp. for the lifting of ethane from the Marcus Hook facility, located near Philadelphia, from 2015.

INEOS Group Limited is a privately owned multinational chemicals company consisting of 15 standalone business units, headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland and with its registered office in Lyndhurst, United Kingdom. It is the fourth largest chemicals company in the world measured by revenues (after BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell) and the largest privately owned company in the United Kingdom. Ineos operates steam crackers in Grangemouth in the UK, Cologne in Germany, Lavera in France and Rafnes in Norway.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Malaysian state-owned Petronas is reported to be close to selling a stake in its Canadian shale gas assets to an Indian company in a move to offset the costs of a proposed LNG export scheme, said Upstreamonline.

The company aims to spend USD35 billion to exploit shale gas assets in north-east British Colombia, acquired through its USD5 billion takeover of Canadian player Progress Energy Resources last year, and build a liquefied natural gas export terminal to supply gas-hungry Asian markets. Earlier this year, Petronas was in talks to sell 10% of its Canadian shale gas assets to Indian Oil Corporation.

The Malaysian company has already sold a 10% stake in the integrated shale gas development and LNG project to Japan Petroleum Exploration. Petronas had previously said it would spend USD20 billion to build two LNG trains on Canada’s West Coast. This includes a pipeline to be built by TransCanada from the fields in the shale-rich Montney region. The trains are expected to be ready by the end of 2018 or 2019.

Petronas has previously stated that a final investment decision on the entire project will be taken by the end of 2014.

Shamsul was more cautious about the fate of an USD850 million deal to buy a stake in two Brazilian offshore oil blocks controlled by the ailing Brazilian oil company OGX, saying it would wait for a court decision on OGX's bankruptcy filing last month before deciding on the plan. OGX has said that it expected to end up in arbitration over the deal with Petronas.

For the three months ended September, Petronas posted a 16% rise in net profit from a year ago to 14.47 billion Malaysian ringgit (USD4.52 billion), helped by higher demand for crude and a return to production in South Sudan.

Total quarterly domestic and international output reached 2.06 million barrels of oil equivalent, up from 1.90 million a year ago, as the Fortune 500 company resumed operations in South Sudan and ramped up output in Malaysia, Iraq and Canada.

In the first nine months of the year, production was up 6% from the corresponding year-ago period.

As MRC wrote before, Petronas signed an agreement with Eni-controlled Versalis to jointly own, develop, construct and operate elastomer plants within Petronas' proposed refinery and petrochemical integrated development (RAPID) complex in Pengerang, Johor. The proposed joint venture will produce and market synthetic rubbers using Versalis' technology license and technical know-how.
MRC