CB&I to design, license technology for new Egypt polypropylene project

MOSCOW (MRC) -- CB&I has been awarded a contract by Carbon Holdings for the license and engineering design of a polypropylene unit to be built in Ain Sokhna, Egypt, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to the company's announcement.

The unit will be aligned to the Tahrir petrochemical complex and use CB&I's Novolen technology to produce 350,000 tpy of polypropylene.

"CB&I's Novolen polypropylene technology is integral to our broad portfolio of solutions," said Daniel McCarthy, president of CB&I's technology operating group.

CB&I officials say the project award in Egypt further expands its position in the North African region.

"This is an important milestone for Carbon Holdings and Egypt," said Basil El-Baz, CEO of Carbon Holdings. "This plant will become the first downstream development from our cornerstone Tahrir Petrochemicals project, which will create jobs by establishing converter plants to process polypropylene from our subsidiary Oriental Petrochemicals into goods required for the Egyptian economy.

"We are grateful for CB&I's continued support for Carbon Holdings, and we hope to undertake further chemical derivative projects based on their technology in the future," he added.

As MRC informed previously, in early 2013, Egypt lifted anti-dumping fees on polypropylene (PP) imports from Saudi Arabia after a prior investigation of the matter.

The Egyptian government implemented a protection fee of 15% on all homo-PP imports effective for 200 days from June 5 to December 22, 2012. Egyptian PP producer "Egyptian Propylene and Polypropylene Co" (EPPC) pointed to strong competition from lower priced import cargoes as support for the new measures, but buyers have expressed anger regarding the new protection measures, which they feel to be unjustified. However, in early October the Egyptian government froze the 15% import duty on PP from the Gulf (GCC) for an indefinite period. The government took this decision after the closure of the plant of EPPC, the main provider of local PP for Egyptian converters.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petrochemical company SABIC has announced strategic collaborations with two of India’s premier government institutions, the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET) and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

SABIC’s master umbrella advisor program agreement with CIPET will leverage its expertise and infrastructural facilities for an increased pace of research in specific areas of polymer processing like computer-aided design, manufacturing and engineering, and mold design for plastics and allied industries.

The collaboration agreement also supports skills development through an academic research partnership that provides for an annual scholarship for Ph.D. students researching in the area of SABIC’s interest; support in designing of CIPET’s curriculum, including the latest technology developments; guest faculty from SABIC; and a six-month internship opportunity to CIPET’s plastic engineering students at the SABIC Technology Center, Bengaluru, one of India’s most premier, state-of-the-art research facilities.

The master research alliance agreement with CSIR paves the way for collaborative research leveraging competencies of CSIR laboratories – in particular, the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune; the Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP), Dehradun; and the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad. CSIR chemical laboratories are focused on catalysis, polymer rheology, reaction engineering and petroleum processing, among others. The tie-up also provides for funding to CSIR for chemicals and petrochemical polymer research.

SABIC currently has research collaborations with IITB Monash in Mumbai; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US; Cambridge University in the UK; the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in China; ETH Zurich in Switzerland; the National Research Council in Italy; and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in Germany. It also has similar collaborations with several universities in Saudi Arabia: such as King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, King Saud University, King Abdulaziz University, and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) ranks among the world’s top petrochemical companies. The company is among the world’s market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Large fire explosion’ rocks ExxonMobil’s Torrance Refinery in California, reported The Washington Post.

Workers evacuated an ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance, Calif., after an explosion, which occurred near a fluid catalytic cracking unit, according to the United Steelworkers union that represents operators at the plant.

There was a "large fire explosion" at the ExxonMobil Torrance Refinery in Southern California on Wednesday morning, according to the Torrance Police Department. The explosion, which happened shortly before 9 a.m. local time, prompted a shelter-in-place order for nearby residents, according to police, though fire officials said there was "no chemical release."

According to police, everyone was accounted for after the incident. The fire was "quickly extinguished" by both Torrance Fire and ExxonMobil crews, the department added.

Although police reported three minor injuries, ExxonMobil said in an emailed statement Wednesday afternoon that four of its contractors went to the hospital with minor injuries.

Police said that air quality readings were "within normal range," adding: "Air Quality Management is on site to evaluate this situation."

ExxonMobil promised to conduct a "thorough investigation of the cause of this event."

According to the company, approximately 650 employees and 550 contractors work at the 750-acre refinery, which "processes an average of 155,000 barrels of crude oil per day and produces 1.8 billion gallons of gasoline per year."

As MRC wrote before, in late September 2014, ExxonMobil restarted impacted units at its refinery and petrochemical complex in Singapore. They had been shut on September 10, 2014 owing to a power failure. Located at Jurong Island in Singapore, the refinery has a crude processing capacity of 605,000 bpd.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Italy's Eni raised its dividend on Wednesday despite a slump in fourth-quarter profits and like its rivals pledged to cut investment this year in the face of lower oil prices, said Reuters.

Eni posted a 64 percent drop in fourth quarter adjusted net profit and said it would cut investment in 2015 by about 14 percent, mainly at its exploration and production business. Oil companies across the globe have announced spending cuts and asset sales worth billions of dollars to strengthen their balance sheets and offset falling crude prices.

Larger energy firms such as BP and Total have said they do not intend to cut dividends, a key attraction for investors, even if oil prices remain low. Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said 100,000 square kilometers of new acreage had been discovered in 2014 and he confirmed the firms's oil and gas output would grow by 3 percent a year.

While analysts welcomed the forecast, some were concerned the reduction in capital expenditure may curb expansion further out, and others sounded a note of caution on Libya. "I'm a bit worried cutting capex might mean curtailing future growth," Ifigest fund manager Roberto Lottici said.

Eni, which has had a reserves replacement ratio of 127 percent in the last five years, has one of the best discovery records amongst large oil firms and analysts said it had scope to ease back on some of its activity. The company is the biggest foreign oil producer in Libya where escalating violence has seriously hit production.

As MRC wrote before, Italian Eni had put on hold an assessment of its options regarding its stake in oil field services company Saipem because of difficult market conditions. In July Eni laid out plans to sell assets, including its multi-billion dollar stake Saipem to help fund its transformation into a leaner oil and gas outfit.

Eni is an Italian multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Rome. It has operations in in 79 countries, and is currently Italy's largest industrial company with a market capitalization of 68 billion euros (USD 90 billion), as of August 14, 2013. The Italian government owns a 30.3% golden share in the company, 3.93% held through the state Treasury and 26.37% held through the Cassa depositi e prestiti. Another 39.40% of the shares are held by BNP Paribas.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Huntsman's fourth-quarter earnings fell, missing analyst estimates, as sales at its textiles and polyurethanes divisions dropped, said Investor's Business Daily.

The chemical company's Q4 earnings declined 31.3% to 33 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting 37 cents. Revenue climbed 9% to USD2.95 billion, slightly under views for USD2.96 billion.

Revenue rose at its pigments and additives unit, thanks to the businesses acquired from Rockwood Holdings late last year.

Revenues rose slightly for the quarter to USD2.95bn. 2014 net income more than doubled year on year to USD323m, while adjusted EBITDA for the period stood at USD1.34bn compared to USD1.21bn in 2013, and full-year revenues rose by almost USD500m over the same period to USD11.58bn.

The stronger US dollar against major European currencies impacted earnings before interest taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) by USD11m compared to the previous year. Adjusted EBITDA was USD292m for the quarter compared to USD313m during the closing quarter of 2013

Huntsman is restructuring the company. In December, it announced plans to cut 900 jobs after the Rockwood deal.

Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals with 2013 revenues of over USD11 billion. Huntsman is a global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals. The company's operating companies manufacture products for a variety of global industries, including chemicals, plastics, automotive, aviation, textiles, footwear, paints and coatings, construction, technology, agriculture, health care, detergent, personal care, furniture, appliances and packaging.
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