Gazprom neftekhim Salavat shut HDPE production for turnaround

MOSCOW (MRC) - Bashkir company Gazprom neftekhim Salavat (GNS) , one of the largest Russian petrochemical producers, shut its high density polyethylene (HDPE) capacities for annual scheduled maintenance works, as per the weekly ICIS-MRC Price Report.

Representatives of the company said, the capacities for HDPE production were shut from 22 July. The turnaround will take approximately 7 days. The plant's annual production capacity is 120,000 tonnes.

As it previously reported, Gazprom neftekhim Salavat shut down low density polyethylene (LDPE) production for 30 days' repairs from 1 July. The plant's annual production capacity is 45,000 tonnes.

According to the MRC, GNS produced 34,600 tonnes of LDPE and 93,900 tonnes of HDPE in 2015. GNS produced 20,800 tonnes of LDPE and 55,900 tonnes of HDPE in January-June 2016.

JSC Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat produces and sells oil refinery, gas and chemical, and monomer products in the Russian Federation. Its oil refining products comprise gasolines; pentane isopentane fraction; petroleum benzene, toluene, and naphtha; kerosene absorbent; diesel fuel, fuel oil-mazut; feedstock for viscous oil road bitumen production; sulphur; and oil bitumen. The company also offers mineral fertilizers, such as ammonia, urea, ammonium nitrate, and NP and NPK fertilizers. Its monomer plant products include ethylene; propylene; pentane-isoprenecyclopentadiene fraction; butylene-butadiene fraction; heavy pyrolysis residue; styrene; polyethylene; polystyrene products, including GPPS, HIPS, and EPS; HDPE; LDPE.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DuPont Performance Materials has formally expanded its capacity by inaugurating its largest engineering plastics compounding plant located in the Guangming New District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, said Plasticsnews.

The site produces a variety of DuPont products, including Zytel polyamide (PA), Crastin (PBT), Delrin acetal (POM) resins, Bynel® adhesive resins, and Fusabond resins, to primarily serve automotive, industrial and consumer, and packaging markets in both China and the Asia Pacific region.

The new state-of-the-art facility incorporates the latest compounding technologies and features a number of innovations to deliver consistent high quality and increased productivity. Notably, DuPont collaborated closely with the extrusion equipment builder during the research and development phase to create a production setup that allows faster transitions between different product families to provide greater asset flexibility to meet customer needs with shorter delivery cycles. Designed with future expansions in mind, this new compounding facility is the largest in DuPont’s global manufacturing network. The larger extruders installed deliver a higher volume output with increased efficiency. Furthermore, a greater level of automation from silo to extruder is beneficial for product uniformity and quality. Product packaging also is fully automated at the new facility.

"This investment reinforces our commitment to meet the growing needs of our customers and will provide increased capacity, greater asset flexibility and speed to respond to demand changes. The technology advancements enable consistent delivery of high quality product and will strengthen our position as a market leader with innovative, high-quality DuPont products produced in a timely and responsive manner," stated Randy Stone, president, DuPont Performance Materials.

"This is a major investment in DuPont Performance Materials’ largest market, China, and in our fastest growing area, Asia. It complements our extended global operations network and demonstrates our commitment to growth in China and Asia Pacific. DuPont started its China growth journey from Shenzhen 27 years ago. We remain committed to participating and contributing to China’s drive for sustainable development, leveraging DuPont’s scientific innovation capabilities," said Tony Su, president, DuPont Asia Pacific.

As MRC informed earlier, DuPont Clean Technologies’ largest IsoTherming unit has successfully completed the performance test, certifying that the unit is meeting performance guarantees.

DuPont is an American chemical company that was founded in July, 1802. The company manufactures a wide range of chemical products, leading extensive innovative research in this field. The company is the inventor of many unique plastics and other materials, including neoprene, nylon, Teflon, Kevlar, Mylar, Tyvek, etc. DuPont was the developer and main producer of Freon used in the production of refrigeration equipment.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iran is in talks with Mitsui & Co. Ltd. and Total SA as part of its push to attract USD60 bln in foreign investment to more than double the country’s capacity to produce petrochemicals over the next decade, as per Bloomberg.

State-run National Petrochemical Co. plans to increase output capacity to 150 mln metric tons a year by 2026, as per Managing Director Marzieh Shahdaei. That means completing 55 unfinished projects and 28 new production facilities. If it succeeds, Iran would be producing more than twice the current output of Saudi Basic Industries Corp. Iran is seeking to upgrade and expand its energy industry, including petrochemicals, in a drive to rebuild its economy after the easing of international sanctions in January. The Persian Gulf nation has boosted crude output since then to near pre-sanctions levels and ramped up production of natural gas. Iran holds the world’s largest reserves of gas, a raw material for petrochemicals.

Although most of the restrictions on Iran were lifted under last year’s nuclear accord, some U.S. sanctions remain in place, prohibiting transactions in dollars and keeping large international banks at bay.

The government presented about 60 projects to potential investors in December at an event in Tehran with companies including BASF SE, the world’s largest chemical company by sales.

Iran’s current production capacity is 60 million tons a year, up about a third since the end of the last Iranian year on March 20, when it stood at 46 million tons, Shahdaee said. Sabic, by comparison, produced 69.7 million tons annually as of the end of 2014, according to the Saudi company’s website.

Iran generated US$14 billion from petrochemicals produced in the last Iranian year, including USD9.4 billion from exports, mostly to China and Europe, Shahdaee said.

A USD10 billion credit line from Japan to Iran, announced last month, could facilitate the petrochemicals business, she said. In addition to Mitsui and Total SA, NPC is in talks with several German, Italian and Spanish companies, Shahdaee said, declining to identify them because they haven’t signed memorandums of understanding with Iran.

"Companies that ignored us for years are now getting up and coming here," she said. "It’s similar to starting a race. They are positioning themselves in the starting blocks so that as soon as the barriers are removed, they can get working."

As MRC informed earlier, National Petrochemical Company (NPC) and Linde AG of Germany has begun over investment and participation in Iran’s most strategic petrochemical complex. Six month after the implementation of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), no official agreement has been signed with a foreign firm for development, investment attraction of reopening of credit and finance lines in the country’s petchem industries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Indian government is planning to unite 13 state oil firms to create a giant corporation, the Economic Times reports.

The revenue of the new company would exceed that of Chevron, and its market value will be bigger than Russia's Rosneft.

According to the media, the new oil major will be the biggest company in India in terms of turnover, net profit, capital expenditure and market capitalization.

The largest piece in the mega-merger is the country’s oil producer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). The other companies are the country’s biggest refiner and fuel retailer Indian Oil Corporation, as well as Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum, GAIL, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL), Chennai Petroleum, Numaligarh Refinery and Oil India.

The six biggest companies from the list have a market cap of USD77 billion. In comparison, the market value of Russia's Rosneft is USD55 billion.

India was considering the merger in 2005, but gave up the idea, as it was decided the big united company may harm competition in country’s energy sector.

In May, ONGC bought a 15 percent stake in Rosneft’s Indian subsidiary Vankorneft for USD1.27 billion. In the fall, Rosneft is expected to close the deal with other Indian companies - Oil India, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroresources - for the acquisition of a 29.9 percent stake in TAAS-Yuryakh that explores and produces oil and gas in Siberia. The deal also includes the sale of a 23.9 percent stake in Vankorneft and could be worth USD5 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Following years of delay, Vietnam’s government of south central Binh Dinh Province has canceled a USD20-billion project to build a refinery and petrochemical complex in the province in a joint venture (JV) with PTT Plc (Bangkok, Thailand), said Chemweek.

The announcement was made by the provincial committee’s chairman Ho Quoc Dung, who says the long delay in the project’s implementation after three years of registration for investment affected its feasibility and the province’s attractiveness to other investors. PTT is still awaiting clarification. "We have not received an official notification from the government of Vietnam," PTT tells CW.

The news follows a recent decision by Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco), PTT’s JV partner, to pull out of the project. The partners submitted in 2014 a joint, detailed feasibility study to the government of Vietnam for the project, the Victory Project, to be developed in Binh Dinh Province. Each of the partners was expected to hold 40% in the project, and a Vietnamese partner was expected to hold the remaining 20%. The inability to find a local partner has prompted Aramco to withdraw from the project. PTT, following Aramco’s withdrawal, transferred PTT’s share in the scheme to IRPC Public Co. Ltd. (Bangkok), PTT’s affiliate active in refining and petrochemicals. The companies were seeking a foreign partner to replace Aramco and continued with discussions with local companies for the remaining 20% stake.

The Nhon Hoi Oil Refinery and Petrochemical Complex, in the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone, was expected to break ground this year. It was to have been based on a 400,000–barrels per day oil refinery feeding a 1.4-million metric tons per year (MMt/y) naphtha cracker with downstream units designed to produce a combined 5 MMt/y of petrochemicals. The original plan was to have the complex onstream in 2021, but delays pushed the commissioning to 2025.

MRC