Binh Son to shut PP plant in Vietnam for maintenance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical is in plans to take a polypropylene (PP) plant off-stream for a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Vietnam informed that the company is likely to shut the plant in June 2017 for a period of around 7 weeks. The exact date shutdown could not be ascertained.

Located in Vietnam,the plant has a production capacity of 150,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, Vietnam's Dung Quat oil refinery plans to sell a 5%–6% stake in the company in the fourth quarter of 2017 via an initial public offering (IPO). The IPO is part of a government plan to sell state-owned enterprises including Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co, which runs USD3 B Dung Quat. It is currently the sole refinery operating in the country.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- GE and Bashneft, a Rosneft-affiliated company, have signed a long-term service agreement to ensure reliable wastewater treatment at Rosneft’s industrial facilities in the Russian city of Ufa, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Under the 15-yr contract, GE will provide a comprehensive service solution featuring advanced digital technologies to monitor filtration equipment at the plant.

With this agreement, signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, GE Water & Process Technologies will take over maintenance responsibilities for ZeeWeed* membrane bioreactors (MBR), electrodialysis reversal and reverse osmosis equipment at the facility, extending equipment guarantees for the full life of the contract.

The service solution will leverage GE’s InSight* remote water monitoring system, which combines big data and analytics to maximize performance, minimize unplanned downtime, lower operating costs and deliver better business outcomes.

GE earlier signed a contract for the supply of equipment as part of the renovation of the company’s water treatment facilities. Following completion of the project, the new system will output up to 84 Mtpd (thousands of tons per day) of clean water, an unprecedented figure for a Russian industrial facility. The GE membrane bioreactor significantly improves treatment efficiency by passing water through microscopic pores, cleansing it of nearly all impurities and microorganisms.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, has announced the appointment of Adnan Ahmad as Region President, India, said the producer in its press release.

He succeeds Deepak Parikh who been instrumental in implementing and leading Clariant's growth strategy in India for the past 4 years. Deepak Parikh will now serve as as the Region President for Clariant in North America as well as chief executive officer of both Clariant Corporation and Clariant Canada Inc.

Effective June 1, 2017, Adnan Ahmad assumes the role of Region President for Clariant in India and also the Vice-Chairman & Managing Director of Clariant Chemicals (India) Limited. Adnan, an Indian citizen, has over 32 years of industry experience across sectors and continents. He began his career with ICI where he worked in a variety of manufacturing, supply chain and business roles across India. Adnan joins Clariant from BP where he held various global and leadership roles with demonstrated success in transformational leadership and regional supply chain management. He worked in the UK, with responsibility for Europe and Africa and in Singapore with responsibility for Asia and Pacific regions. He also served on the Board of Castrol India Limited.

Adnan holds a masters degree in Chemical Engineering from Queens University, Canada. He received a National Energy Conservation award from the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2004. He has also been conferred with the Helios Award for Human Energy by Lord Browne, the erstwhile Chief Executive of BP plc, for leading transformational change in Road Safety for Castrol India.

As MRC reported earlier, in May 2017, Clariant and Huntsman Corporation announced that their Boards of Directors unanimously approved a definitive agreement to combine in a merger of equals through an all-stock transaction. The merged company will be named HuntsmanClariant. On a pro forma 2016 basis, the combination of both companies will create a leading global specialty chemical company with sales of approximately USD13.2 billion, an adjusted EBITDA of USD2.3 billion and a combined enterprise value of approximately USD20 billion at announcement.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC)—Russian oil major Rosneft has agreed to explore and develop five fields in Iraq's Kurdistan as the company seeks to become a key player in one of the world's newest and fastest-growing oil provinces, said Reuters.

Kremlin-controlled Rosneft this year became the first oil major to pre-finance Kurdish crude exports, an activity long dominated by trading houses, which bankrolled the semi-autonomous region amid its fight against Islamic State and a budget crisis caused by low oil prices.

On Friday, Rosneft and the Kurdistan government signed production-sharing deals for five oil blocks, with Rosneft saying it would also aim to explore for gas in the future.

Igor Sechin, Rosneft chief executive and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the company was widening cooperation with Kurdistan following the first direct purchases of Kurdish oil for Rosneft's German refineries earlier this year.

Increased feedstock access. "The agreements...set an example of well-weighed investments in one of the key Middle East regions, which will make it possible for the company to expand its exploration and production geography, provide feedstock for Rosneft's growing refining network and raise profitability of our international assets," Mr. Sechin said.

Iraq has long opposed Kurdish independent oil sales, but has lately eased its stance amid joint efforts by the regional government and Baghdad to defeat Islamic State.

Rosneft and Kurdistan also said they had agreed on the "monetization of the export oil pipeline in Kurdistan," with Rosneft getting access to the regional transportation system, which has throughput capacity of 700 Mbpd.

By the end of 2017, Kurdistan plans to expand the pipeline to 1 MMbpd, or 1% of global output, betting on the arrival of new volumes from fresh developments.

Kurdish oil production has been mainly led in recent years by mid-sized firms, including Genel. Larger companies such as ExxonMobil and Chevron are still in the exploratory stage and have recently returned some blocks to Kurdistan after disappointing searches.

Rosneft said the deals signed would allow it to talk about "full entry in one of the most promising regions of the developing global energy market." Kurdistan estimates its recoverable reserves at 45 Bbbl of oil and 5.66 Tm3 of gas.
MRC

MOSCOW (Market Report) - Negotiations on the Russian polyvinyl chloride (PVC) price for June delivery were quite difficult, contrary to the experience of past years, producers had to reduce prices, according to the ICIS-MRC Price Report.

Negotiations on the June contract prices of Russian suspended PVC (SPVC) began last week, and at the initial stage of approval, producers announced the rollover of the May price level. Converters did not hurry to confirm the prices, the negotiations delayed.

The active process of concluding deals began only in the middle of the last week, the converters managed to achieve a reduction in prices of Rb1,500 - 2,000/tonne. The demand for PVC in the market has been gradually growing from month to month, but the growth is not as dynamic as the growth in supply of raw materials.

SPVC supply in Russia grew by 11% in the first four months of the year compared to the same time of 2016. The excess in PVC supply began to be seen in April, when the import of acetylene PVC from China began to grow dynamically.

The imports of Chinese PVC grew even more in May and in the first three weeks of the month exceeded 11,000 tonnes. Some major Russian converters partially closed their needs in PVC through purchases in China.

The influx of imports of polyvinyl chloride forced Russian producers to take a non-traditional step for the current period of time - a reduction in prices.

Deals for June delivery were discussed in the range of Rb65,000-67,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT for deals up to 500 tonnes.

Resin with К 70 has fallen in price more essentially, deals were discussed in a range of Rb66,000 - 68,000/tonne, including VAT, and delivery, whereas a month earlier deals were concluded in the range of Rb68,000 - 70,500/tonne, including VAT, and delivery.
MRC