Linde wins major contract for olefin plant in Russia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Technology company The Linde Group has been awarded a major contract by PJSC Nizhnekamskneftekhim (NKNK) to supply an olefin plant in the city of Nizhnekamsk, located in the Republic of Tatarstan in the Russian Federation. Both partners officially signed the agreement in St. Petersburg, Russia, as per Linde's press release.

A further agreement covering strategic cooperation between Linde and the TAIF Group was also concluded in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Minister President of Bavaria Horst Seehofer and President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov.

PJSC Nizhnekamskneftekhim is one of Europe's largest petrochemical companies and a member of the TAIF Group.

"This large-scale project, coupled with plans for a strategic alliance with the TAIF Group, take our successful collaboration to a whole new level," said Dr. Aldo Belloni, Chief Executive Officer of Linde AG. "It also gives us a strong footing to position ourselves for further contracts in the industrial gases and plant engineering sector in this key Eastern European growth market."

As part of this major contract, Linde is responsible for licensing, design, material procurement and technical engineering consulting for the plant.

NKNK’s new olefin complex will be built in Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan, at what is currently Eastern Europe's largest petrochemical hub. In the first expansion stage, it will have the capacity to produce 600 Mt of ethylene and over 600 Mt of other chemical products per year. The annual production capacity will be doubled in the future through the addition of a further plant. Linde also aims to support NKNK in the subsequent project phases.

The new plant is a naphtha cracker that thermally breaks down hydrocarbon feedstocks - naphtha in this case - into olefins such as ethylene, propene and butadiene. These are then used as feedstocks for manufacturing various plastics. The new olefin plant is scheduled to go on stream in 2022.

As MRC informed previously, in early 2016, Linde AG agreed with Gazprom to build a gas processing plant in eastern Russia. The plant will be part of Gazprom’s pipeline taking gas from eastern Siberia to China. The Amur Gas Processing Plant will be one of the largest in the world, with capacity of up to 49 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually. The plant will be constructed in five phases due for completion in 2024.

The Linde Group is a world-leading gases and engineering company with around 62,000 employees in more than 100 countries worldwide.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- TechnipFMC has signed a cooperation agreement with Pall Corporation to market, design and supply proprietary slurry oil filtration systems for fluid catalytic cracking units (FCCUs), as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Based on Pall technology, the filtration systems are used by refiners to remove catalyst fines from slurry oil, an FCC main fractionator bottoms product. The clarified oil can be blended into fuel oils that must meet stringent particulate requirements. It can also be used as a feedstock for plants that produce premium products, such as carbon black and anode grade coke.

The agreement combines TechnipFMC’s global strength in FCC technology with Pall’s expertise in the development of specialty filtration systems and the fabrication of advanced filter media.

"As a major licensor of FCC technology, TechnipFMC is pleased to offer filtration systems which will help refiners meet increasing environmental regulations and improve the value of their supply chain," said Stan Knez, Senior Vice President, Onshore Process Technology for TechnipFMC.

The associated activities will be managed by TechnipFMC Process Technology’s center in Houston, Texas, which has significant refining technology experience. The center is part of a global network of centers that look after the company’s expanding portfolio of onshore process technologies in petrochemicals, refining, hydrogen and syngas, polymers and gas monetization.

With its FCC alliance partner, Axens, TechnipFMC has licensed 61 grassroot FCCUs and performed more than 250 revamp projects.

As MRC informed before, France’s Technip S.A. plans to complete work on design engineering as part of the construction of oil and gas processing and petrochemical complex (GPC) in Azerbaijan in the 2H 2017.

Besides, earlier, in 2014, Technip was awarded a contract by Westlake Chemical to provide detailed engineering and procurement services to expand the recovery section of Westlake’s Petro 1 ethylene plant at its complex in Sulphur, Louisiana, USA.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bayer AG is reducing its holding in Covestro by way of an accelerated bookbuilding procedure with a targeted volume of EUR 1 billion. In addition, Bayer AG is offering EUR 1 billion of bonds exchangeable into Covestro shares maturing in 2020, said the company on its website.

The two placements started on Tuesday after the stock market close and are addressed to institutional investors only. Barclays and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint bookrunners. In the context of the placements, Bayer has agreed to a lock-up period of 90 days.

Furthermore, Bayer will deposit 8 million Covestro shares in Bayer Pension Trust e. V., a contractual trust arrangement for pension finance, in the near future. The package amounts to 4 percent of Covestro’s shares and will be subject to the same lock-up period of 90 days.

The transactions offer Bayer the opportunity to further reduce its holding in Covestro. Covestro will continue to be fully consolidated in Bayer’s financial statements since Bayer should continue to hold the majority at a Covestro annual stockholders meeting after these transactions are completed. As previously announced, Bayer aims to achieve full separation from Covestro in the medium term.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pertamina plans to delay some refinery upgrades and a new project, including ventures involving Rosneft and Saudi Aramco, due to financing issues, said Reuters.

The delays will mean that Indonesia, which is one of Southeast Asia's biggest fuel importers, may have to ship in more oil products than previously planned over the next decade.

Rachmad Hardadi, director of megaprojects and petrochemicals at Pertamina, told reporters the timing of the targeted completions had been pushed back to ensure that "the cost is not a burden over the same (one or two) years."

He said readjustments were needed so the projects fitted with upstream acquisitions and infrastructure requirements.

Hardadi said the completion of stage one of the Balikpapan project, which is to boost the refinery's capacity to 360,000 bpd from 260,000 bpd, would be pushed back to 2020 from 2019. Stage two, aimed at improving fuel quality, would be delayed to 2021, he said.

Pertamina was awaiting a green light from the board of partner Saudi Aramco for its plan to delay the completion of the USD5 B upgrade of the 348,000 bpd capacity Cilacap refinery in Central Java to 400,000 bpd to 2023 from 2021, he said.

Pertamina also planned to discuss with its partner Rosneft on Wednesday delaying the completion of the new Tuban refinery project to 2023–2024 from 2021, Hardadi said.

The new Tuban refinery, which will eventually be integrated with the TPPI petrochemical refinery that Pertamina took over in late 2015, will have a crude processing capacity of 300,000 bpd.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ashland Global Holdings Inc has completed the previously announced acquisition of a composites resin manufacturing facility in Etain (France) and its associated business from Reichhold Holdings International BV, said Business-standard.

The facility, which employs approximately 50 people, manufactures unsaturated polyester resins (UPR) used in a variety of end markets, including transportation and construction. Reichhold said the divestiture was an integral part of the program to achieve closing of its previously announced combination with Polynt.

"The addition of the Etain facility strengthens Ashland's position in the European composites market. Together with Ashland's existing facilities in Spain, Finland and Poland, we are well positioned to deliver enhanced customer service and support future growth opportunities across Europe. The Etain technologies in automotive (SMC) and wind energy applications will allow Ashland to supplement the already extensive composites product portfolio in Europe to support our existing and new customers," said Andy Johnston, group vice president, composites, Ashland.

MRC