SOCAR selects Honeywell UOP technology to modernize its Heydar Aliyev refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell announced that the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) will use a suite of Honeywell UOP technologies to modernize its oil refinery in Baku, Azerbaijan, to produce high-quality gasoline that meets stricter emission standards, said the company on its site.

The effort will help Azerbaijan meet growing domestic demand for transportation fuels that meet international emission standards equivalent to Euro V fuel requirements.

"Honeywell UOP will provide a suite of technologies that will allow SOCAR to efficiently produce higher octane gasoline with far fewer contaminants," said Pete Piotrowski, vice president and general manager for Honeywell UOP. "This latest effort builds on a strong business relationship with SOCAR, which includes an economic and technical assessment of the refinery and builds on work by Honeywell UOP for SOCAR's new STAR refinery in Turkey."

In addition to technology licensing, Honeywell UOP will provide basic engineering designs and a process revamp study for SOCAR.

As MRC informed earlier, KBR announced that its SOCAR-KBR joint venture was awarded a significant project management consultancy (PMC) contract for the Heydar Aliyev Baku oil refinery modernization project in Azerbaijan.

SOCAR, which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad, is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan. SOCAR Polymer is a subsidiary of SOCAR. The entity was formed at the end of 2013 to run investments at the Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park, a production park which intends to become a chemical hub in central Asia.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Rosneft (Moscow) said on Wednesday that during a recent visit to India by the company’s chairman Igor Sechin it held negotiations with the management of Essar Oil achieving "preliminary mutual understanding" on the timing and structure of a deal for Rosneft to buy into the equity of Essar Oil, said the company on its site.

The parties intend to sign and close the transaction by the end of June 2016 on obtaining all the necessary permits. In addition an agreement on crude oil deliveries to commence this year has been reached.

As MRC informed earlier, in July 2015, Rosneft signed a preliminary agreement with the Essar group, controlled by the Ruias, to buy a 49% stake in Essar Oil’s Vadinar refinery and supply 100 million tonnes of oil to the latter for the next 10 years.

The capacity of Vadinar refinery currently amounts to 20 MMTPA. This refinery is the second largest in India and one of a top ten world’s best refineries. The refinery is highly flexible in terms of raw materials use and is capable of refining heavy and sour oil grades. Essar Oil Limited plans to implement the modernization program expanding the refinery’s capacity up to 25 million tonnes per annum including production of 1 million tonnes per annum of propylene/polypropylene.

Essar Oil Limited also owns an operational network of 2,000 fueling stations in India. The company’s plans include expanding the network up to 5,000 stations. Deregulation of pricing at the Indian retail market opens perspective of retail sales growth.

Rosneft became Russia's largest publicly traded oil company in March 2013 after the USD55 billion takeover of TNK-BP, which was Russia’s third-largest oil producer at the time.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Total imports of polyethylene (PE) into Ukraine increased to 38,900 tonnes in the first two months of 2015, up 36% compared to the same period of 2015. The greatest increase in demand occurred for high density polyethylene (HDPE), according to MRC DataScope.

February imports of polyethylene into Ukraine were 21,500 tonnes compared to 17,100 tonnes; imports of all types of PE increased. Total PE imports in the country grew to 38,900 tonnes in January - February 2016, compared with 28,500 tonnes year on year. The greatest increase in supply occurred for HDPE, the smallest - for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE).

Structure of PE imports over the reported period was as follows.

February imports of HDPE into the country were about 9,600 tonnes, compared with 9,100 tonnes in January. A small increase in imports occurred for film PE. HDPE imports in the country increased to 19,100 tonnes in January - February of this year, compared with 12,100 tonnes in the same time a year earlier.

February low density polyethylene (LDPE) imports into Ukraine increased to 6,500 tonnes against 4,200 tonnes a month earlier. The main increase in February LDPE imports into the country occurred for film PE from Belarus. LDPE imports were 10,700 tonnes in the first two months of the year, up 26% year on year.

February imports of LLDPE into the country grew to 4,800 tonnes, compared with 3,100 tonnes in January. Local producers of stretch films significantly increased their procurement volumes. In general, January - February LLDPE imports into Ukraine increased to 7,900 tonnes compared with 6,700 tonnes year on year.

Import of other types of polyethylene in January-February slightly exceeded 1,200 tonnes.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS and Solvay announce their intention to end their 50/50 chlorvinyls INOVYN Joint Venture earlier than originally foreseen, with INEOS to become the sole shareholder, said INEOS on its site.

INEOS and Solvay formed INOVYN in July 2015, with Solvay's exit originally planned in July 2018.

Upon exit, Solvay would receive a final exit price payment of EUR335 million.

"Thanks to the fast and efficient integration of its teams and assets, INOVYN is now a sound and sustainable chlorvinyls player. This allows us to bring forward Solvay’s exit and to further focus on its portfolio transformation, while achieving a first step in de-leveraging the balance sheet," said Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, CEO of Solvay.

"INEOS is very comfortable with the proposed early acquisition of the full shareholding of the INOVYN Joint Venture. Chlorvinyls businesses are core to large petrochemicals companies such as ours and through this planned acquisition INOVYN will have an owner with a long term vision that provides stability for its business and employees," comments Jim Ratcliffe, Chairman of INEOS.

Closing of the transaction is likely to occur in the second half of 2016, subject to finalising definitive legal agreements and customary regulatory approvals.

Headquartered in London, INOVYN has pro-forma sales of more than EUR3 billion, with 4,300 employees and assets across 14 sites in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK. Governance of the Joint Venture is equally split between the partners.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Litvinov operations in the Czech Republic were hit by a blast at the steam cracker unit last August, and the plant's refinery has been running at reduced capacity, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Petrochemical group Unipetrol started planned maintenance outage at its Litvinov refinery and connected operations on Tuesday, expected to last until April 30, a company spokesman said.

The Litvinov operations have been hit by a blast at the steam cracker unit last August and the plant's refinery has been running at reduced capacity.

Unipetrol had said it expected the cracker to start working at minimum 65% capacity by July 2016 and at full capacity in October.

As MRC reported earlier, Unipetrol had already restarted its polymerization units at the Litvinov plant - polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) - at limited extent and for a temporary production thanks to external feedstock deliveries of ethylene and propylene.

Unipetrol , a.s. is a group of companies operating in the petrochemical industry in the Czech Republic. In 2005 Unipetrol became a part of the PKN ORLEN Group, the largest oil processor in Central Europe. The UNIPETROL Group is oriented mostly towards oil processing, fuel distribution and petrochemical production. In all of these business areas the Unipetrol Group is among the key players both in the Czech Republic and on the Central European market. The Group ranks among the leading firms in the Czech Republic in terms of its revenues, and employs almost 4,000 people.
MRC