Giant turret module for largest floating facility in the world sets sail for South Korea

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The largest piece of the turret for Shell’s Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) facility has set sail from Dubai for the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in Geoje, South Korea, where the facility is under construction, reported Shell on its site.

The turret is part of a mooring system designed to ensure Prelude FLNG can operate safely in the most extreme weather conditions. At almost 100 metres high, it is the largest in the world. The turret will run through the front of the facility and connect to giant chains that will keep it moored securely over the Prelude gas field. The turret mooring system will allow the facility to turn slowly in the wind and with currents – ensuring it can remain safely at its location through the most powerful cyclones.

Shell was the first company to commit to an FLNG project, and it expects Prelude FLNG to be the first of many such Shell facilities.

Once complete, Prelude FLNG will operate in a remote basin around 200 kilometres off Australia’s north-west coast, for around 25 years. It will produce about 3.6 million tonnes of LNG a year to help meet rising global demand for cleaner energy.

After the first 25-year assignment, Prelude FLNG could be refurbished and moved to a different field for another quarter century.

FLNG will allow Shell to produce natural gas at sea, cool it onboard into LNG, and pump it directly into ships that will transport it to customers around the world. It can mean faster, cheaper and more flexible development of offshore gas fields that would otherwise be too costly to develop.

As MRC informed previously, Vitol Group, the world’s largest independent oil trader, is considering a bid for some of Royal Dutch Shell's Australian downstream operations. Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, is stepping up asset sales after spending a record USD45 billion on projects and acquisitions last year.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Borealis, a leading provider of innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilizers, has recorded a net profit of EUR143 million in the second quarter of 2014, compared to EUR83 million in the same quarter of 2013, as per the company's report.

The improved result is a reflection of stronger margins for the polyolefins business while the fertilizer business was impacted by the turnaround in Grand-Quevilly, France. Borouge, Borealis' joint venture in Abu Dhabi, continued to deliver a strong result, which was up in the second quarter of 2014 compared to the second quarter of 2013. The improved result of Borouge comes as start-up activities of the Borouge 3 project are ongoing.

The company's net debt increased by EUR58 million in Q2 2014 largely due to an increase in working capital needs. Borealis' financial position remains strong with financial gearing of 48% at the end of the second quarter.

Borouge has successfully started up its third ethane cracker as part of the company's Borouge 3 expansion and has been producing on-spec ethylene since the middle of June. The cracker has an annual ethylene production capacity of 1.5 million tonnes. The two Borstar polyethylene, the low density polyethylene as well as the two Borstar polypropylene plants will start up sequentially in the coming period.

Besides, on 7 August, Borealis signed an agreement with DuPont Holding Netherlands to purchase the company's 67% shareholding in Speciality Polymers Antwerp. The company, located in Zwijndrecht (Antwerp, Belgium), is a joint venture between DuPont (67%) and Borealis (33%) and primarily manufactures ethylene acrylates copolymers and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA).

On August 7, Borealis also announced the signing of a 10-year agreement with US-listed Antero Resources to supply, on an annual basis, 240,000 tonnes of ethane from the United States for its flexible steam cracker in Stenungsund, Sweden. A related long-term shipping agreement was signed with US-listed Navigator Holdings, who will build a new, 35,000 cbm state-of-the-art ethane vessel to ensure cost effective, safe and reliable transport of ethane to Stenungsund. The ethane supply coming to Stenungsund by ship will be stored in a purpose-built, fully refrigerated ethane tank. An amount of EUR120 million will be invested in the Stenungsund location, including the upgrade of the cracker.

Borouge is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil company and Borealis.

Borealis is a leading provider of innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilizers. Borealis is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and operates in over 120 countries with around 6,400 employees worldwide, generating EUR8.1 billion in sales revenue in 2013.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PolyOne Corp. has added a new line of shimmer and frost-effect colorants to its InVisio line of color services and solutions, said Plasticsnews.

The new liquid color concentrates aimed at PET containers produce effects such as iridescent color movement and unique surface appearance that help in brand differentiation in beverage, personal care and household product containers.

The new concentrates, made using PolyOne’s ColorMatrix liquid color dispersion technology, are available in ten standard formulations as well as custom colors and can be processed on conventional gloss preform molds and blow molds. The different ColorMatrix grades provide various degrees of reflection, translucency and apparent texture.

As MRC wrote before, PolyOne GLS Thermoplastic Elastomers has announced that Versaflex CE TPE materials for consumer electronics are now available in combination with Percept Authentication Technologies. This material innovation has been developed to help brand owners combat counterfeiting and reduce the risks associated with fraudulent goods such as phone cases, smart watches, headphones, earbuds and other wearable electronics.

PolyOne’s head office is in Avon Lake, Ohio. PolyOne Corporation, with 2013 revenues of USD3.8 billion, is a global 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) - Consumption of expandable polystyrene (EPS) and general purpose polystyrene (GPSS), actively used in the insulation sector, grew by 25% and 11% in Ukraine in the first seven months of 2014, compared with the same time in 2013, according to the Monthly report of MRC.

Fearing disruptions in heating and electricity in the cold season, Ukrainians actively insulated their homes. Imports of EPS, used for the production of EPS-boards, in Ukraine increased by 26% and exceeded 16,000 tonnes in January-July 2014.

Strong demand for imported brands also showed producers of XPS-boards. Imports of GPPS from producers of thermal insulation materials increased by 11% to 4,500 thermal protection in January-July 2014.

Buying activity in the market was high, despite the rapid rise in prices, said traders. All polystyrene in this sector is imported into the country.
Because of the conflict in the east of Ukraine, Stirol, the only Ukrainian producer of EPS and GPPS, completely stopped working and supplies to the domestic market this year.

Prices for finished goods have also grown sharp, following the devaluation of the national currency. Prices for the brand of polystyrene, used for the production EPS and XPS-boards have increased in hryvnyas by 60-70% since the beginning of the year.

Demand for other styrene plastics has fallen. For example, January-July imports of high-impact polystyrene (HIPS), which is used in the production of refrigerators, electrical and plastic containers, fell to 6,600 tonnes, down 18% compared to the same time a year earlier.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russia's production of polycarbonate (PC) was 41,000 tonnes in January-July 2014, up 9% year on year, as per MRC ScanPlast.

The only national PC producer, Kazanorgsintez shut its capacities for scheduled maintenances from 21,July to 17, August.

The producer's PC output in July was about 4,000 tonnes. More than 90% of this volume, as usual, were extrusion grades, in line with the current needs of the market.

As previously reported, Kazanorgsintez has adopted a policy to support national converters in the extrusion sector, and therefore reduced the production volume of injection moulding grades to 200-300 tonnes per month. Other volumes were allocated for sheet extrusion PC.

The producer, working at 100% capacity utilisation, can each month produce about 6,000 tonnes of PC-granules. The producer's representatives said that following the resumption the company plans to produce the half of the monthly PC output until the end of August.

Another surge in demand for extrusion PC is expected to be in September on the back of high season of construction work (mainly civil engineering).

Converters do not feel shortage of PC in August, although it is possible to be in September.

MRC