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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iran, OPEC's No. 3 producer, is expected to raise its oil exports in March to around 1.65 million bpd from 1.5 million bpd a month earlier on the back of higher crude shipments to Europe, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

State-run National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) is expected to ship around 250,000-300,000 bpd to Europe this month after it finalized term deals with France's Total and Spanish refiner Cepsa, effective from March 1, said the sources, who are familiar with Iran's exports.

The French oil major has a contract to buy about 200,000 bpd, while Cepsa's deal was for about 35,000 bpd, one source said. Total is expected to lift at least 5 million bbl in March, the source added.

Litasco, the trading arm of Russia's Lukoil, Cepsa and Total have become the first buyers in Europe after the lifting of sanctions and lifted trial cargoes in February, trading sources told Reuters.

Hellenic Petroleum, Greece's biggest oil refiner, has said it will receive its first shipment of Iranian crude oil at the end of March.

Tehran is working to regain market share, particularly in Europe, after the lifting of international sanctions in January. Oil exports rose by 500,000 bpd to 1.5 million bpd in February, a senior NIOC official said on Tuesday.

The sanctions had cut Iranian crude exports from a peak of 2.5 million bpd before 2011 to just over 1 million bpd in recent years. Tehran has said it would boost output immediately by 500,000 bpd and by another 500,000 bpd within a year, ultimately reaching pre-sanction production levels of around 4 million bpd seen in 2010-2011.

But even a gradual increase in its exports would come at a time of global oversupply, with producers around the world pumping hundreds of thousands of barrels every day in excess of demand. Oil prices are near 11-year lows at around USD37/bbl.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Venezuela and non-OPEC Russia agreed last month to freeze output at January levels in the first global oil pact in 15 years.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said last week the freeze was "laughable". Iranian sources say the country would be prepared to discuss a production pact once output reaches pre-sanctions levels.

As MRC informed earlier, Iran is in discussions with Air Liquide regarding prospects of building a Propylene via Methanol (PVM) plant in the country, as per an Iranian petrochemical official. PVM technology is used to convert methanol into propylene. Over the past two years, Iran focused on acquiring PVM technology, launching its first PVM pilot plant in Mahshahr city in early 2015, producing 120,000 tons of propylene from methanol, as per Xinhua.

MRC

Dow Chemical ships reverse osmosis elements from new Jubail plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow Chemical has completed the inaugural shipment of its DOW FILMTEC reverse osmosis elements from its new Dow Water & Process Solutions (DW&PS) manufacturing facility in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This first shipment is targeted to serve emerging markets. A first of its kind built outside the US, the new reverse osmosis (RO) production facility came on-stream in December 2015 to better serve the local Saudi Arabian market and help meet aggressively growing demands for RO in Middle East and Africa regions, as well as Eastern Europe, India, China and Southeast Asia.

Dow’s wholly-owned Jubail operations plant is located in Jubail Industrial City II within the fully integrated Sadara Chemical complex, the joint venture developed by Dow and Saudi Aramco. The plant manufactures FILMTEC RO elements for seawater and brackish water desalination and for water reuse of potable, non-potable and industrial water.

"The Jubail Operations replicates and builds on the state-of-the-art production technology employed in Edina, Minnesota, and adds a high technology investment to the Kingdom," said Chuck Swartz, president for Dow in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

It is anticipated that RO elements manufactured at the plant have the capability to reduce the oil requirement to distill water in the region by approximately 10 million bbl per year -- equivalent to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from 900,000 passenger vehicles driven per year.

Dow’s investment in the DW&PS plant complements its continued activities at the Dow Middle East Research and Development Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), where research on RO solutions in combination with ultrafiltration pretreatment for seawater desalination is taking place.

As MRC informed earlier, DuPont Co. and Dow Chemical Co. said U.S. regulators last week requested additional information about their pending merger, which will extend the their antitrust review. The pending deal, unveiled in December, will combine two of the oldest companies in the U.S. into a chemical giant called DowDuPont, initially valued at about USD130 billion. The combined company will then split itself into three separately-traded companies focused on agricultural products, material sciences, and specialty products about 18 to 24 months after the merger closes.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber. In 2014, Dow had annual sales of more than USD58 billion and employed approximately 53,000 people worldwide.
MRC

PTTGC took off-stream LLDPE plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) has shut its linear low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant for maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in the Thailand informed that the company has halted operations at its plant on March 2, 2016 . The plant is likely to remain under maintenance for a period of around 1 month.

Located at Map Ta Phut in Thailand, the LLDPE plant has a production capacity of 400,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, in late February 2015, PTTGC shut two of three high density polyethylene (HDPE) units for a maintenance turnaround, which are expected to remain idle for a period of around 30 days. The shutdown of the third small unit could not be ascertained. Located at Map Ta Phut in Thailand, the HDPE plant consisting three units has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year, 500,000 mt/year and 140,000 mt/year.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC

Borealis Q4 net profit up 72%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Borealis (Vienna), one of Europe’s major producers of polyolefins, on Friday reported a huge increase in fourth-quarter and full-year profits, making 2015 the best year in the company’s history, said the company in its press release.

Net profit in the fourth-quarter rose 72% to EUR242.0 million (USD264.6 million) and in the full-year was up by 73% to EUR988 million. Fourth-quarter and full-year sales were down, however. In the fourth quarter sales dropped 9% to EUR1.8 billion and in the whole of 2015 were down 8% to EUR7.7 billion. The improved result was driven by overall stronger margins in the polyolefins business, a higher contribution from the base chemicals operation and an improved contribution from Borouge, Borealis’s joint venture in Abu Dhabi, following the start-up of the Borouge 3 project. Within base chemicals, the fertilizer business saw operational improvements but the overall operability is not yet at the desired level, the company says.

Borealis also expects further improvement in its fertilizer business but says that Borouge will be hurt by the lower price environment in Asia. "Overall, Borealis expects to see a solid, albeit lower profitability in 2016 compared to 2015, as the strategy of growing the three profit centers, polyolefins, base chemicals and Borouge contributes to ensure the competiveness and resilience of the company," Garrett says. In fertilizers, Garrett confirms that Borealis’s target is to double capacity to 10 million m.t./year to become the second largest fertilizer player in Europe after Yara International. Borealis, meanwhile, is making progress with its ammonia project on the US Gulf Coast and is already lining up buyers in the US for some of the output. The rest will be subject to swaps to balance out its requirements in Europe.

Borouge has completed construction of Borouge 3, which has given the company a combined of 4.5 million m.t./year of polyolefins. The only plant yet to be put on line is the cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) plant, whose commissioning has been further delayed until May. This is because Borouge wanted to make sure the LyondellBasell-process low-density polyethylene plant, which forms part of Borouge 3 and will feed the XLPE plant, is running well. Garrett tells CW that a feasibility study is under way to debottleneck Borouge 1, 2 and 3, which would give Borouge an extra 1 million m.t./year of combined ethylene and propylene capacity. This would lead to the debottlenecking of the existing PE and polypropylene (PP) plants and the construction of one new PP facility with a capacity of between 500,000-600,000 m.t./year of PP. A decision on the project will be made later this year.

As MRC informed earlier, Borouge selected Neste Jacobs, a technology, engineering and project management company, as a front-end engineering and design (FEED) service contractor for its polyethylene (PE) plant modification project, located in the Ruwais industrial area of the UAE. This project is the third FEED project in a row which Neste Jacobs is delivering to Borouge in the UAE under the long-term service contract that was previously signed between the two companies (Tier 1 contract). 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 5,300 employees worldwide.
MRC

Exxon Mobil joins race to export crude oil from the USA

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. has become the first major U.S. oil company to ship American crude overseas, joining a band of independent traders that are trying to ease a glut at home after a 40-year export ban was lifted, reported Bloomberg.

Exxon shipped U.S. crude into a refinery it owns in Sicily, according to a person familiar with the matter and three traders and ship brokers. The Maran Sagitta oil tanker sailed in early February from Beaumont, Texas, where Exxon operates a refinery. It recently arrived in the Italian port of Augusta.

Until now, trading houses including Vitol Group BV and Trafigura Pte and European-based oil companies have shipped U.S. crude overseas. Exxon is the first American firm that joins the race, which comes as domestic U.S. crude inventories surge to the highest level in nearly 90 years.

"While we do not comment on the details of proprietary commercial agreements, crude exports from the U.S. are now another commercial option that we may elect to exercise from time to time," Exxon said in an e-mailed statement.

Oil traders are shipping West Texas Intermediate to refiners in the Mediterranean to profit from the difference in crude prices between the two regions. A glut of WTI has pushed up U.S. stockpiles to a record, depressing the price of the U.S. benchmark relative to European Brent crude.

The exports into Europe follow a congressional deal in December to lift a 1970s-era prohibition on overseas shipments and a movement in relative prices between the U.S. and Europe making exports profitable.

As MRC informed before, in November 2015, Ineos, ExxonMobil Chemical and Shell have reached a long-term sale and purchase agreement to secure ethane from US shale gas for the Fife ethylene plant (FEP) at Mossmorran, Scotland. The ethane supply will start from mid-2017. The Fife plant will receive ethane from Ineos’ new import terminal in Grangemouth, Scotland.

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.
MRC