Poland draft shale law 'ready by year's end'

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Poland new environment minister said his ministry will draft a law to regulate the exploration and extraction of shale gas in the country and send it to the government for approval by year's end, said Upstreanonline.

Maciej Grabowski has made it a priority to speed up uncoventional devlopment in the country that has some of the largest potential shale resources in Europe. Poland is eager to be able to supply its own energy needs to be less reliant on Russian imports.

Grabowski says passing clear hydraulic fracturing regulations will make it easier for companies to invest in shale in Poland. "I believe that one can achieve environmental goals by tying them to economic goals in a way more friendly for investors," Reuters quoted Grabowski as saying.

"We would like the law facilitating investment in shale to be passed as soon as possible to reduce the potential risk for investors," he said. Grabowski said the long-anticipated law on shale gas taxes would be prepared separately by the finance ministry.

Companies have begun an exodus from Poland amid unclear regulations and mixed well results. US supermajor ExxonMobil made the most high profile departure to date, abandoning concessions earlier this year. Marathon Oil and Talisman Energy followed suit. Other global players like Chevron and ConocoPhilips have stayed on, however.

Grabowski said Poland must drill three to four times more exploration wells to know if shale can be developed commercially. "200 to 250 wells will allow us to find out if commercial extraction is realistic," he was quoted as saying.

But he also warned that pending European Union plans to regulate - or even ban - fracking could pose problems to Poland's shale prospects. He said Poland is ready to defend its right to exploit its shale reserves. "I know what is happening in Brussels, some concern is warranted," Grabowski said. "If there is need we will act in an unambiguous way on many front lines and create coalitions to back our position."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec, the nation’s biggest refiner,warned authorities in China two years ago that urbanization was hampering repair work on a crude oil pipeline in the eastern city of Qingdao. A blast last week at the pipe killed 55 people, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The pipeline had "several safety hazards," Sinopec, said in a September 2011 report, submitted to the Environmental Protection Bureau in Weifang, a city near Qingdao. The report describes the 27-year-old pipeline as originally built in a sparsely populated suburb, now crowded by construction and a rising population. Qingdao is home to 7.66 million people.

The November 22 crude oil spill and blast, the deadliest since at least 2005 according to the official Xinhua News Agency, highlights the challenges facing China in balancing safety with urbanization, as it rushes to add apartments, railways and factories. Premier Li Keqiang has championed urbanization as a "huge engine" of future economic expansion to revive slowing growth.

"On paper more urbanization is good, but it ignores the lack of government oversight and poor construction quality," said Ding Xueliang, a professor who studies China’s modernization at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. "The explosion in Qingdao is a huge lesson for the entire country."

"Originally the pipeline was located on the outskirts and it has now become a bustling downtown district," Sinopec wrote in its September 2011 report. The company cited "many buildings" and a "densely populated" area as impediments to conducting pipeline repairs.

Sinopec stopped 306 cases, including building projects, that illegally interfered with its nationwide pipeline operations in the first nine months, one of the company’s pipeline units said in an October report.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to boost work safety and increase inspections in the wake of the disaster.

"A large-scale work safety check should be launched, with inspectors going deep into the production sites anonymously and unannounced," Xi said, according to Xinhua.

In a separate incident, a crane at a high-speed rail construction site fell and caused a gasoline spill at a Sinopec pipeline in Guizhou province in southern China on November 26, Xinhua reported. All residents within 2 km of the leak were evacuated and the spill is being investigated, it said.

As MRC wrote previously, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. started pipelines in Qingdao on 26 November that were undamaged after an explosion last week. The pipelines resumed operations after inspections. The Qingdao refinery will return to normal output soon.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC) is a large scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Sinopec is the worlds seventh biggest company by revenue.
Sinopec is China's largest manufacturer and supplier of major petrochemical products. It is the second largest producer of crude oil in China. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally
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Imports of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) reached 12,100 tonnes and 3,300 tonnes, respectively, in January-October 2013. These figures were 10,100 tonnes and 3,200 tonnes, respectively, in the same period of 2012. Russian producers are the key LDPE suppliers, and producers from South Korea and Uzbekistan are leaders in the supply of LLDPE to Kazakhstan.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF has produced its first commercial volumes of 1,4-butanediol (BDO) from renewable raw material, and is offering this product to customers for testing and commercial use, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The production process relies on a patented fermentation technology from Genomatica, based in California. The fermentation process uses dextrose as a renewable feedstock.

The quality of BDO based on renewable raw material is comparable to petrochemical-based BDO, according to the company.

BASF plans to expand its portfolio with selected BDO derivatives based on renewable feedstock, including polytetrahydrofuran (PolyTHF).

BDO and its derivatives are widely used for producing plastics, solvents, electronic chemicals and elastic fibers. The starting materials for the production of conventional BDO are natural gas, butane, butadiene and propylene.

As MRC reported earlier, this year BASF and China-based Xinjiang Markor Chemical unvelied their plans to set up two joint venture companies for the production of butanediol (BDO) and polytetrahydrofuran (PolyTHF), in Korla, Xinjiang Uygur, China. The JV firms are considering building a new BDO plant, with an annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes, and another facility with a capacity for 50,000 tonnes per annum of PolyTHF. These are expected to be commissioned in 2015.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. As for BDO and BDO-equivalents, BASF currently manufactures these products at its sites in Ludwigshafen, Germany; Geismar, Louisiana; Chiba, Japan; Kuantan, Malaysia; and Caojing, China, and has an annual capacity of 535,000 tonnes.
MRC