MOSCOW (MRC) -- Rosneft, Pirelli S.p.A. and Synthos S.A. signed a Memorandum of Understanding with regard to performing a feasibility study in the area of R&D, production and supply of synthetic rubber in the city of Nakhodka within the framework of the FEPCO (Far East Petrochemical Company) petrochemical cluster, said Yourpetrochemicalnews.
The document envisages the performance of the feasibility study for the project, which will include plant engineering designs and operational requirements, market studies, capital investments and operating costs estimates. Moreover the parties express their intentions of using FEPCO petrochemical cluster, which is situated in Nakhodka, for synthetic rubber production for the purpose, among other things, of supplies to Pirelli’s own tire production facilities in Asia-Pacific region. Above all, Rosneft, Synthos and Pirelli show intention to develop experimental projects in this area.
Synthetic rubber, which is supposed to be produced there, is an environmentally-friendly material, which is used in production of so called "green tires". It improves adherence on both wet and dry road and helps to reduce fuel consumption.
Prague-based investment bank WOOD & Company said it believed that for Synthos the project might be an alternative to constructing its planned 80,000 tonne/year neodymium polybutadiene (Nd-PBR) rubber plant at the Triunfo Petrochemical Complex in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Synthos has been unable to secure the BD because the planned producer of the raw material, Braskem, has been unable to contract enough naphtha supplies from fellow Brazilian company Petrobras. Braskem needs that naphtha to produce BD. No update on the Triunfo investment was available from Synthos.
As MRC informed earlier, capacity of the LNG project to be located on Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East is expected to be 5 million tpy, subject to further expansion. The liquefaction plant, the launch of which is scheduled for 2018, will receive natural gas from Rosneft’s reserves in the Far East and other Sakhalin gas reserves.
Rosneft is currently buying competitor TNK-BP in deals worth USD55 billion that will create the largest listed oil producer in the world and will hand BP a 19.8% stake in the oil giant.
MRC