CPC to shut No. 5 cracker for maintenance in Taiwan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan's state-run oil refiner CPC Corp. is in plans to shut its No.5 steam cracker for maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the cracker is planned to be shut in early May 2014. It is likely to stay off-stream for around three months.

Located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 500,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, Taiwan’s state-run oil refiner CPC Corp. will enter into a strategic alliance with Japan's Mitsubishi Corp. The alliance will give CPC an overseas research and development partner for the first time. CPC also hopes to be able to obtain raw materials and patented technologies through Mitsubishi's global trade network to support a plan to tap into the downstream side of the petrochemical business.

CPC Corporation is a state-owned petroleum, natural gas, and gasoline company in Taiwan and is the core of the Taiwanese petrochemicals industry.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd. reported quarterly profits of USD900 million and a record income for the year so far on strong energy and retail revenues, as per Ein News.

The Mumbai-based company’s net profit for the quarter ending Dec. 31 was up just 0.2% from the same period the previous year.

It said that profits for the nine months since the start of its fiscal year last April were a record-high USD2.6 billion.

Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani said profits were kept steady by the company’s oil refining business plus growing retail revenue, which expanded by 38%.

"This quarter demonstrates the outstanding quality of our refining and petrochemical business resources and their ability to deliver credible performance in a period marked by cyclicality and uncertainties," Ambani said.

As MRC informed earlier, in October 2012, Reliance Industries announced its plans to expand capacity at its refineries in the western state of Gujarat. Earlier last year, Reliance had unveiled an USD18 billion investment plan for India over the next five years.

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. Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Beijing hosted a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Zhou Jiping, Chairman of China National Petroleum Corporation, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The meeting participants addressed the issues of Russian natural gas supply to the Chinese market via the eastern route. Both parties are interested in successful completion of the negotiations and looking forward to signing a contract as soon as possible.

The parties noted that the negotiations were progressing as per schedule and the contract would enter into force in accordance with the previously agreed Major Terms – till late 2014.

It was suggested that the contract should be prepared for signing during Russian President's visit to China scheduled for this May.

As MRC wrote before, Gazprom and CNPC agreed on basic terms of long-awaited gas supplies to China in September 2013.

CNPC is the largest state-owned petroleum company in China (the Government holds a 100 % stake) and is one of the world's leading integrated oil and gas production companies.

Gazprom is a global energy company. Its major business lines are geological exploration, production, transportation, storage, processing and sales of gas, gas condensate and oil, sales of gas as a vehicle fuel as well as generation and marketing of heat and electric power.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Products announced it has signed an agreement with a consortium including Technip and JGC to implement the Yamal LNG Project, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The LNG plant under construction on the Yamal Peninsula will mark the first time Air Products deploys its proprietary LNG technology and equipment in Russia. The plant will be Russia's largest LNG production and export facility.

Air Products will supply three MCR Main Cryogenic Heat Exchangers to be installed at the heart of the propane pre cooled mixed refrigerant liquefaction process. Each of these units using Air Products' proprietary AP-C3MR LNG process technology and equipment will produce 5.5 Mtpa of LNG, for the overall 16.5 Mtpa three train facilities.

LNG from the Yamal LNG Project will be used primarily to meet the growing energy needs of Asia and Pacific Region countries.

A majority of the total worldwide LNG is produced with Air Products' technology. Air Products has now designed, manufactured, and exported more than 100 coil wound heat exchangers for LNG projects around the globe over the last four decades. In support of the LNG industry, Air Products provides process technology and key equipment for the heart of the natural gas liquefaction process for large export plants, small and midsized LNG plants, floating LNG plants and LNG peak shavers.

Upstream, Air Products provides both nitrogen and natural gas dehydration membrane systems for offshore platforms. Downstream, Air Products provides dry inert gas generators for LNG carriers, shipboard membrane nitrogen systems, and land based membrane and cryogenic nitrogen systems for LNG import terminals and base-load LNG plants.

As MRC informed previously, earlier this year, Air Products agreed to acquire all of DuPont's interest in DuPont Air Products NanoMaterials, the two companies' 50-50 joint venture serving the global semiconductor and wafer polishing industries. The venture state-of-the-art applications and formulation laboratories in the US and Taiwan.
MRC