January DOP prices in Russia remained at the rollover from December

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Foster Wheeler AG has announced that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction (E&C) Group has been awarded a contract by STAR Rafineri A.S., a subsidiary of SOCAR Turkey, for project management consultancy (PMC) services for its grassroots Aegean Refinery to be built within the Petkim Petrokimya A.S. (PETKIM) facilities at Aliaga, Turkey, as per Foster Wheeler's statement.

Foster Wheeler's contract value was not disclosed and was included in the company's third-quarter 2013 bookings.

As MRC informed previously, the new refinery is designed to process a range of different crude oils with a processing capacity of 10 million tons of crude oil per year. It is expected to start operations in 2017 and to produce a range of products including jet fuel, diesel, naphtha, petroleum coke and liquid petroleum gases.

Foster Wheeler executed the front-end engineering design (FEED) for the entire refinery and also provided the license and basic design package for the delayed coker, which will use Foster Wheeler’s leading SYDEC(SM) delayed coking technology.

"Having successfully delivered a high quality FEED, we are very pleased to continue to play a key role in this strategic investment in Turkey," said Roberto Penno, Chief Executive Officer of Foster Wheeler’s Global E&C Group.

Foster Wheeler AG is a global engineering and construction company and power equipment supplier delivering technically advanced, reliable facilities and equipment. The company’s Global Engineering and Construction Group designs and constructs leading-edge processing facilities for the upstream oil and gas, LNG and gas-to-liquids, refining, chemicals and petrochemicals, power, minerals and metals, environmental, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and healthcare industries.

SOCAR Turkey Energy Co. is a joint venture of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and Petkim Petrokimya Holding A.S. of Turkey.

Petkim is the leading petrochemical company of Turkey. Specializing in petrochemical manufacturing, the company produces ethylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and other chemical building blocks for use in the manufacture of plastics, textiles, and other consumer and industrial products.
MRC