Hanwha to shut EVA/LDPE lines for maintenance turnaround in

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hanwha Chemicals is in plans to shut its three EVA/LDPE lines for maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the lines are planned to be shut in September 2014. They are likely to remain off-stream for around one month.

Located in Ulsan, South Korea, the lines have a production capacity of 40,000 mt/year each.

As MRC informed earlier, Hanwha Chemical has recently picked Credit Suisse to advise on possible purchases from Dow Chemical's chloro-alkali business but its interest is still in the early stages.

Hanwha Group is one of the largest business conglomerate in South Korea. Founded in 1952 as Korea Explosives Inc., the group has grown into a large multi-profile business conglomerate, with diversified holdings stretching from explosives, their original business, to retail to financial services.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has taken a planned maintenance shutdown of one of its three paraxylene (PX) units at Jamnagar, as per Apic-online.

The scheduled shut down period is approximately for a period of six weeks.

This shut down will also be utilized to improve reliability and performance of the unit. The other two PX units will continue to operate normally.

Reliance Industries Ltd has a total capacity of 1.8 million tonnes per annum of paraxylene at Jamnagar.

As MRC wrote before, RIL shut down one of its four crude distillation units for maintenance and inspection (M&I) activities on March 20. The outage will last for about three-and-a-half weeks.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema, a France-based chemical manufacturer, has announced a EUR150/tonne price increase for its whole Evatane range (high content ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer) from April 1, 2014 or when contracts allow, as per the company's statement.

This increase is due to rough market conditions, including the world wide unavailability of vinyl acetate monomer.

Marketed under the trademark Evatane, Arkema's EVA resins are used in highly diverse industrial applications, including hot-melt, cable, multilayer packaging film, technical polymer modification, solar panel, petroleum additives, bitumen and ink.

As MRC informed previously, following a EUR50/tonne price increase on August 1st 2013, Arkema announced a further EUR50/tonne price increase effective early September for its entire Evatane range. Both price increases, amounting to EUR100/tonne over the August and September period, were necessary following two consecutive months of raw material cost increases, while EVA market prices have significantly eroded since the beginning of 2013.

Arkema with annual revenue of EUR6.4 billion is a leading European supplier of chlorochemicals and PVC. Kynar and Kynar Flex are registered trademarks of Arkema Inc.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indonesia’s state-owned energy company Pertamina will spend about USD4 billion to increase oil and gas production in Indonesia this year, said Upstreamonline.

A company executive announced the company would spend USD3.75 billion to improve oil and gas and geothermal production.

Local media reported that Pertamina’s vice president of corporate communications said the funding was 24% higher than in 2013, and would be just under half of the company’s total spend.

Total investment expenditure for 2014 has been set at USD7.8 billion. "The investment will be used to finance Pertamina’s more than 600 upstream projects this year in Indonesia as well as overseas," the company reportedly said.

The company has set its production aim at 280,200 barrels of oil per day and 1.5 million standard cubic feet of gas per day this year. Pertamina is set to boost existing production up to 220,700 bopd, while another 59,500 bopd will be made available through block acquisitions.

The company has focused in on a number of projects this year, including the development of the Offshore North-West Java wells, which is set to increase production by 5300 bopd and 27 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Six fields will also be developed in the West Madura Offshore Block and the company’s subsidiary, Pertamina EP, will drill three more wells in the Paku Gajah field. This year Pertamina posted a 97% five-year increase in net income, taking in USD3.07 billion for 2013.

This was an 11% increase in year-on-year figures, supported not only by the increase in production but the positive growth of oil and gas trading. Pertamina said it bucked the national trend of falling production, with year-on-year production jumping from 461,630 boe in 2012 to 465,220 boe in 2013.

As MRC wrote earlier, this summer, Pertamina signed an agreement to purchase petrochemical products from PTT Global Chemical. The agreement serves as a pre-marketing strategy for Pertamina and PTT’s joint Indonesian petrochemical business. Under the agreement, PTT will deliver at least 5,000 tonnes of polyethylene and polypropylene products each month to Pertamina for sale in Indonesia.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Jacobs Engineering Group received a contract from ConocoPhillips to provide engineering, procurement and construction services for projects across the lower 48 states of the US, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Company officials did not disclose the contract value, but noted that it is a three-year program with options to extend it for an additional four years.

Jacobs’ scope of work under the terms of the contract includes front end studies and engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm) services for a range of ConocoPhillips projects.

"We are pleased to expand our relationship with ConocoPhillips by leveraging our experience and capabilities to support their business goals in the Lower 48 through this project services contract," said Jacobs vice president Chip Mitchell."

We remind that, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has renewed its frame agreement with Borealis for work at its facilities in Stenungsund, Sweden. Jacobs is providing engineering, procurement, project management and construction management services on a variety of projects, each of which is expected to have a total installed cost varying in range up to USD11 million.
MRC