Sasol inaugurates plant to boost polyethylene production

MOSCOW (Markey Report) -- Sasol Limited’s Chief Executive Officer, David Constable, and the South African Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, has inaugurated Sasol’s new ethylene purification unit, known as the Ethylene Purification Unit 5 (EPU5), in Sasolburg, according to the company's press release.

Located at the Sasol Polymers Plant in Sasolburg, the R1.9 billion ethylene purification unit aims to address the growing demand for polyethylene material. The plant will also ensure better utilisation of Sasol’s existing downstream polyethylene facilities.

In delivering his opening remarks at the official opening, David Constable said, "Through the installation of the new ethylene splitter, considerable production capacity has been freed up to produce more ethylene. In so doing, our investment in EPU5, together with a new compressor unit in Secunda, will provide the South African plastics manufacturing industry with an additional 47 000 tons of polyethylene annually."

EPU5 is already in operation phase. Half of the additional 47 000 tons of polyethylene will be reached within the next six months, while the plant is expected to reach full capacity by 2017.

"The South African plastics industry is a significant contributor to the national economy. Local demand for polyethylene polymers continues to grow at a rate of 4 to 5% annually. With a rise in new plant capacities and the need to be globally competitive, we recognised the necessity to expand both polymer and ethylene production," said Marinus Sieberhagen, Managing Director, Sasol Polymers.

As MRC informed previously, in April 2013, Sasol selected the UNIPOL polyethylene process of Univation Technologies and the tubular process technology from ExxonMobil Chemical for the new linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plants in North America, respectively.

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) -- ExxonMobil has officially opened its multi-billion dollar Singapore chemical plant expansion on Jurong Island, to serve growth markets in the Asia-Pacific region, reported the company on its site.

The expansion included a second 1-million-t/y steam cracker, two 650,000-t/y polyethylene plants, a 450,000-t/y polypropylene plant, a 300,000-t/y specialty elastomers unit, an aromatics extraction facility to produce 340,000 t/y of benzene, and a 125,000-t/y oxo-alcohol expansion.

As MRC informed earlier, ExxonMobil started operations at its new ethylene world-scale steam crackers in Singapore in early 2013.

Two-thirds of the growth in chemical demand "will be here in the Asia-Pacific region. ExxonMobil's expanded Singapore chemical plant is uniquely positioned to serve these growth markets—from China to the Indian subcontinent and beyond," explained Rex W. Tillerson, chairman and chief executive of ExxonMobil.

ExxonMobil's Singapore chemical facility accounts for about 25% of the company's global chemical capacity, incorporates over 40 new technologies and is one of ExxonMobil's most energy efficient and flexible sites.

ExxonMobil has operated in Singapore for 120 years and is one of Singapore’s largest foreign manufacturing investors. The company has expanded refining and petrochemical production in Singapore to meet expected demand for transportation fuels and the chemicals used for plastics and other manufacturing across the Asia Pacific region.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total, Europe’s third-largest oil company, has acquired a 40% interest in two shale gas exploration licenses in the UK for an undisclosed amount, the French energy firm said on Monday.

"The interests are in Petroleum Exploration & Development Licenses 139 and 140 in the Gainsborough Trough area of the East Midlands region of the UK," Total said in a statement.

The region covers an area of 240 square kilometres, it said.

The acquisition marks the French oil and gas firm’s first entry into shale gas exploration in the UK, while the company is already involved in shale gas projects in the US, Argentina, China, Australia, Poland and Denmark.

Total’s partners in the UK shale gas project will be GP Energy Ltd, a subsidiary of Dart Energy Europe (17.5%); Ogden Resources UK (14.5%); Island Gas Ltd (IGas) (14.50%) and eCorp Oil & Gas UK (13.5%).

"IGas will be the operator of the initial exploration programme, with Total subsequently taking over operatorship as the project moves towards development," Total said.

As MRC wrote before, Total intends to invest EUR160m before 2016 to adapt its petrochemical platform in Carling, in the Lorraine region of eastern France. Thus, Total plans to develop new activities on the platform in the growing markets for hydrocarbon resins (Cray Valley) and for polymers, while shutting down the acutely loss-making steam cracker in the second half of 2015.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC