SOCAR Turkey signs USD3.29 bln financing deal for Star refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Azeri state oil company SOCAR has signed a USD3.29 billion financing deal with 23 banks and export credit agencies for the construction of a refinery on Turkey's Aegean coast, said Reuters.

SOCAR is building the USD5.5 billion Star refinery to supply feedstock to petrochemicals maker Petkim, which will help cut Turkey's dependence on imported refined oil products. The Star plant in Aliaga on the Aegean coast is expected to have an annual capacity of 10 million tonnes, 1.6 million tonnes of which would be naphtha which could feed the Petkim plant. It will also produce diesel, jet fuel and LPG.

Around USD2.7 billion of the financing has a maturity of 18 years and the remaining USD600 million has a maturity of 15 years, Petkim said in a statement to the Istanbul stock exchange.

SOCAR said it would use USD2 billion of its own equity for the project but has tapped the markets for funding for the rest. It signed a USD3.46 billion engineering procurement and construction contract in May last year with a consortium comprising Tecnicas Reunidas, Saipem, GS Engineering & Construction and Itochu Corp.

Earlier this week, Petkim said it signed an agreement to buy up to 1.6 million tonnes of naphtha feedstock from the Star refinery. The company said it estimates the purchase agreement will cut its raw material costs by USD30 per tonne.

Turkey has a surplus of gasoline but is heavily dependent on imports of diesel, which are expected to rise towards 20 million tonnes annually from around 12 million last year.

Turkey's only refiner Tupras has four plants across the country with a combined oil processing capacity of 28 million tonnes.

SOCAR Turkey now is the sole owner of Star refinery after Turkish energy firm Turcas Petrol said it sold its 18.5 percent stake for USD59.39 million.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Board of Directors of PolyOne Corporation has declared a quarterly cash dividend of USD0.08 per share on the common stock outstanding, reported the company on its site.

Dividend is to be paid on July 2, 2014, to stockholders of record on June 13, 2014

As MRC informed previously, As MRC wrote previously, PolyOne Corporation has recently announced the addition of new capabilities to its OnColor HC Plus portfolio. These expanded offerings add medical-grade LDPE, nylon, PEBA, PS and PVC to the globally available palette of specialty healthcare colorants, and are pre-certified to meet or exceed biocompatibility requirements for ISO 10993 and/or USP Class VI protocols.

All OnColor HC Plus colorants include formulation lock-down provisions, and are suitable for specialized pharmaceutical goods and medical devices.

PolyOne Corporation, with 2013 revenues of USD3.8 billion, is a premier provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions. PolyOne is a provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions with operations in specialty polymer formulations, color and additive systems, polymer distribution and specialty vinyl resins.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Phillips 66 said an international tribunal ruling supports its right to acquire a 50% stake in facilities at its Sweeny refinery in Texas from Petroleos de Venezuela SA, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The International Chamber of Commerce’s Court of Arbitration upheld Phillips 66’s right to exercise a call option in 2009 and assume PdVSA’s interest in Merey Sweeny, Rich Johnson, a spokesman for the Houston-based refiner, said in an e-mail. The partnership owns a 70,000-bpd delayed coker and related facilities at the refinery.

"Certain defaults by PdVSA with respect to supply of crude oil to the Sweeny refinery triggered the right to acquire PDVSA’s 50% ownership interest," Johnson wrote.

State-owned PdVSA initiated arbitration with the ICC, claiming the exercise of the call right was invalid. A PdVSA spokesman declined to comment on the ruling.

"Since there is not a lot of crude imported into the US anymore, this decision hurts PdVSA on several fronts. First, the company loses the refinery and production, and secondly it loses the opportunity to bring crude into the refinery," Oil Outlooks and Opinions president Carl Larry said in an interview from Houston.

Caracas-based PdVSA is diversifying its oil and products export markets, company president Rafael Ramirez said this weekend during a conference in St. Petersburg, Russia. The company is now sending more exports to Asia than the US, he said.

"Even though PdVSA has the right to appeal the decision, at this point it is basically a no-win scenario for the company, since they lose the crude and product and obviously they lose the interest in the refinery. So, on all fronts it’s a big loss for PDVSA," Larry said.

The economic crisis in Venezuela, which has the world’s biggest oil reserves, has fueled three months of protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro that have left at least 42 people dead.

As MRC wrote before, Chevron Phillips Chemical and refiner Phillips 66, has finalized the sale of its Chinese polystyrene business to Grand Astor Ltd.In the deal, Chevron Phillips is selling its affiliate company Chevron Phillips Chemical (China) Co. Ltd., which owns a polystyrene plant located in Zhangjiagang, China.

Phillips 66 is an American holding company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Texas. It debuted as an independent energy company when ConocoPhillips spun off its downstream assets and midstream assets. The company is engaged in producing natural gas liquids (NGL) and petrochemicals. The company has approximately 13,500 employees worldwide and active in more than 45 countries.Phillips 66 is ranked No. 4 on the Fortune 500 list and No. 16 on the Fortune Global 500 list as of 2013.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US styrenics producer Styron, alternately known as Trinseo, has said it plans to close its only North American polycarbonate plant, at Freeport, Texas, by the end of 2014 and exit the market, said Chemanager.

The plant with a capacity of around 100,000 t/y officially belongs to the company's former parent Dow Chemical. The former Dow styrenics unit also produces PC at Stade, Germany, and at Niihama, Japan as part of a joint venture with Sumitomo.

The PC market has been plagued by overcapacity, which has depressed prices and earnings even at leading producers such as Bayer MaterialScience (BMS). Patrick Thomas, CEO of the Bayer offshoot, said earlier this year there were signs that some of the smaller players were planning to quit the market.

Styron said it also will convert a nickel butadiene rubber line at Schkopau, Germany, to produce neodymium butadiene rubber. Conversion of the unit also owned by Dow is expected to begin in the next few months and completed by the end of 2015. Styron said the rubber investment is designed to meet increasing demand for green tires and ultra-high performance tires.

Styron is a leading global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber, dedicated to collaborating with customers to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions. Styron’s technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in Russia dropped from January to April 2014 by 3% year on year, according to MRC ScanPlast.

The output of Russian plants decreased over the said period, despite the overall increased production capacities this year (by 90,000 tonnes at Polief). The overall PET production in Russia totalled 146,600 tonnes over the first four months of 2014.

The situation started to change in April because of a launch of PET chips produciton at Alco-Naphtha. The plant resumed production after a two-month outage and is now operating in a normal mode.

The overall capacity utilisation at Russian plants was 86% in April 2014, whereas this figure was 89% in April 2013.

In its turn, Bashkir Polief reached its full capacity utilisation at two reactors in April. The plant produced over 18,000 tonnes of PET in April, which was the highest figure in the history of the company.

An outage at the Kaliningrad plant in February and March led to increased sales of Russian PET in the domestic market in April. However, buying activity fell again in May on the back of the arrival of significant quantities of imported PET in the market.

As reported earlier, April PET imports reached 30,000 tonnes, which was the top level since June 2011.

MRC