Indian Oil likely to call off acquisition bid if Purnendu Chatterjee gets HPL control

MOSCOW (MRC) -- IndianOil Corporation (IOC) is likely to call off its planned acquisition of the West Bengal government’s 40% in Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) if The Chatterjee Group (TCG) chief Purnendu Chatterjee is appointed HPL chairman, people privy to the matter told Business Standard.

IOC had emerged the sole valid bidder for the state government’s stake in HPL, the second largest maker of polyethylene in India, in which TCG is a key private promoter. TCG has been at loggerheads with the state government to secure management control in HPL.

"We came out as a valid bidder and our intent is to gain management control in HPL. If that is not achieved, it hardly makes sense to go forward with our bid," a senior IOC official said, on condition of anonymity.

Sources said giving Chatterjee the post of chairman was vital for fund infusion into the company.

HPL’s net worth has been eroded due to continuous losses. It has been struggling to secure adequate naphtha to run the plant at full capacity.

HPL is a joint venture project having the government of West Bengal, The Chatterjee Group (TCG), and IOC as major stakeholders. The West Bengal government had decided to quit its showpiece project, Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd, as a shareholder by June 30 2013. IOC already holds close to 9% stake in HPL.

Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd is a modern naphtha based petrochemical complex at Haldia, West Bengal, India. Haldia has played the role of a catalyst in emergence of more than 500 downstream processing industries in West Bengal with a capacity to process more than 3,50,000 TPA of polymers, among which are polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical has shut a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant was shut on March 26, 2014 owing to feedstock issues. A restart date for the plant could not be ascertained.

Located in Shanghai, China, the plant has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed earlier, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical restarted its acrylonitrile (ACN) plant on December 25, 2013. It was shut on November 20, 2013 for maintenance turnaround. Located in Shanghai, China , the plant has a production capacity of 130,000 mt/year.

Besides, top Asian refiner Sinopec Corp won initial approval in October 2013 from China's top economic planner for a plan to build a USD10-billion refinery and petrochemical complex in Shanghai. Sinopec had started formal planning for the 400,000 barrels-per-day refinery and a 1 million tonnes-per-year ethylene project in a plan to curb pollution by shifting an old plant to Shanghai's southern edge.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical companies with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its refining and ethylene capacity ranks No.2 and No.4 globally. The Company has 30,000 sales and distribution networks of oil products and chemical products, its service stations are now ranked third largest in the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Keltan Elastomers business unit of specialty chemicals group Lanxess will globally raise its prices for all of its Keltan EPDM grades (ethylene propylene diene monomer), effective April 1, 2014, reported the company on its site.

The price adjustment for EPDM is USD150/tonne.

EPDM, which is offered under the brand name Keltan, is used in the automotive industry for the manufacture of door sealants, hoses, belts or anti-vibration parts. The product is also used in plastic modification, wire and cable, construction and oil additives. Its properties include very low density, good resistance to heat, oxidation, chemicals and weathering as well as good electrical insulation properties.

As MRC wrote previously, Lanxess' KEL already raised its prices for all of its Keltan EPDM grades in Europe, Middle East and Africa from 1 February, 2014. The price adjustment for EPDM is EUR125/tonne.

The Keltan elastomers business unit is part of Lanxess’ Performance Polymers segment, which recorded sales of EUR 4.49 billion in fiscal 2013.

Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 9.1 billion in 2012. The company is currently represented at 50 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals. Lanxess' sales totalled EUR 8.3 billion in 2013.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Preparations to start the construction of an industrial complex for polyethylene and polypropylene production in Turkmenistan's Kyyanly seaside settlement are underway, said Azernews.

The news was announced by the Turkmen government on March 25. "This project is planned to be implemented with the participation of a Japanese consortium and a South Korean company," the Turkmen government said.

The issue was discussed at a government meeting during which Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov pointed out that the construction of this facility has been determined by the existence of huge natural gas resources and plans for the diversification of the country's export potential.

"Approving the project for a new gas and chemical complex, the Head of State gave his instructions to hold strict control over the timely fulfillment of all tasks related to the country's fuel and energy complex which is the strategic sector of the national economy," the government said.

A number of industrial facilities worth USD10 billion, including a gas chemical complex in Kyyanly, will be built with Japanese capital in Turkmenistan in the near future.

The Turkmen State Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs and the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) signed a cooperation agreement to implement the large-scale project in September 2013. The project will be implemented as part of the oil and gas industry development project for the period of up to 2030.

Turkmenistan's chemical industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of its national economy, having enormous resource potential.

Turkmenistan is working on the development of a large project for the establishment of major gas, chemical, and petrochemical industries in the next ten years.

Work on the utilization of associated petroleum gas and the extraction of liquefied natural gas, synthetic fluids, and electricity are of great importance as well.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- CB&I has announced it has been awarded a contract by Shandong Sincier Petrochemical Co., Ltd. for the license and engineering design of a grassroots propane and butane dehydrogenation unit to be built in Dongying, Shandong Province, China, according to Plastemart.

The unit will use the CATOFIN dehydrogenation technology offered from CB&I and Clariant's tailor-made CATOFIN catalyst to process feeds containing 165,000 mtpa of propane and 250,000 mtpa of iso-butane for the joint production of propylene and isobutylene.

"This project award demonstrates the flexibility of the CATOFIN technology and catalyst to allow customers to co-process multiple feed compositions at optimal conditions for the highest yields with proven operational reliability," said Daniel McCarthy, President of CB&I's Technology operating group. "The new CATOFIN unit will enable Shandong Sincier to process cost effective LPG feedstocks."

Propylene and isobutylene will be used as building blocks to produce a variety of plastics and solvents.

As MRC wrote previously, Shandong Huachao Chemical Co. will use the UOP C4 Oleflex process to produce isobutylene. The Shandong Huachao project will be the sixth C4 Oleflex unit in China. The new units is expected to start up in 2016. The Shandong Huachao facility will process 200,000 metric tons of isobutane.

We also remind that Honeywell's UOP granted the third technology license for its breakthrough methanol-to-olefins (MTO) technology to China's Shandong Yangmei Hengtong Chemicals. The Chinese company will use Honeywell UOP's advanced MTO process to convert methanol from gasified coal into ethylene and propylene.
MRC