Clariant and Tiangang celebrate first milestone in new production JV for light & process stabilizers in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, and Tiangang Auxiliary Co., Ltd., a privately owned producer and leading supplier of light stabilizers in China, has kicked-off their new production joint venture with the go-ahead to purchase a site within the Cangzhou National Coastal-Port Economy and Technology Development Zone, Hebei province, as per the company's press release.

Clariant is a leading supplier of light stabilizer solutions and highly-regarded for its advanced technologies for Plastics & Coatings, such as the innovative HALS technology Hostavin NOW. Clariant and Tiangang intend to build a world-class production facility for the joint manufacture of process and light stabilizers at the location, to support growing local demand for high-end solutions from the region’s expanding industries. Production at the new site is scheduled to come on stream in the first half of 2019. The JV will initially focus on textile-related stabilizers and solutions for the automotive industry.

The assignment of the land for the production plant within the Cangzhou National Coastal-Port Economy & Technology Development Zone was officially confirmed on November 20 by Zhang Guo Dong, Standing Committee Member of Cangzhou Municipal Party Committee of the CPC, Chief Director of the Administrative Committee of Cangzhou Bohai New Area, Li Huafeng, Deputy Secretary of Party Committee, Cangzhou National Coastal-Port Economy and Technology Development Zone, Director of Administrative Committee, and Yu Zengzhou, Deputy Director of Administrative Committee, when meeting with representatives from Clariant and Beijing Tiangang.

Secretary Zhang Guo Dong commented: "With the signing of Clariant's project, Bohai New Area has made another great breakthrough in the introduction of foreign advanced technology. All departments of Bohai New Area are committed to actively providing enterprises with any support they need during the construction of their projects." In addition, Mr. Zhang hopes that the area could explore more opportunities with Clariant based on the existing cooperation so as to introduce more foreign advanced technologies into the area. Zhang is looking forward to completion of the preliminary work and to welcoming Clariant to the area.

Stephan Lynen, Head of Clariant BU Additives, said: "The demand for high-end additives solutions is growing strongly in China. With the merger control clearance successfully confirmed in October, we are pleased to complete this next important step with our trusted partners towards establishing local production that will accelerate response times, shorten supply lead times and deliver tailored solutions to our customers in the growing Asia region, especially in China."

As MRC informed before, in March 2017, Clariant was awarded a contract by Dongguan Grand Resource Science & Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a new propane dehydrogenation unit in cooperation with CB&I. The project includes the license and engineering design of the unit, which is to be built in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China.

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. Clariant India has local masterbatch production activities at Rania, Kalol and Nandesari (Gujarat) and Vashere (Maharashtra) sites in India.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Malaysian state energy firm Petroliam Nasional Berhad, or Petronas, has forecast higher full-year earnings for 2017, after posting a 64% jump in third-quarter profit on improved oil prices, reported Reuters.

A higher profit would be the second straight year of improved earnings at Petronas, reversing a two-year profit slump with the help of a modest recovery in oil prices and cost-cutting measures.

"Petronas expects the group's overall year-end performance to be better than last year," the company said, indicating an improved view of the energy market since August, when it expected its annual performance to be "fair".

Petronas Chief Executive Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin said the group remained committed to boosting efficiency across its operations.

"We intend to enhance our efforts to take advantage of the current recovery in oil prices for Petronas to close the year strongly," he said.

Petronas, like other oil majors, has taken a hit from lower oil prices. Brent crude has fallen sharply since 2014, though it has somewhat recovered this year, trading near a two-year high on Thursday.

The firm has focused on cutting costs amid expectations that the low oil price environment will continue. Last year the company said it would cut spending by up to 50 billion ringgit (USD12.2 B) over the next four years.

Petronas is a key contributor to government coffers: its dividends last year accounted for 7.5% of total government revenue. It is one of the country's largest employers with a workforce of over 50,000.

As MRC wrote before, Malaysia's state oil firm Petroliam Nasional Berhad said in January 2017 its new USD27 billion refining and petrochemical complex project in the southeast Asian country is on track for start-up in 2019. Sources familiar with the matter told then Reuters that Saudi Aramco had shelved its plans for a partnership with the company on the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project.

Petronas plans to build a C6-based metallocene linear LDPE plant and a low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) swing plant at its greenfield integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in southern Johor state by mid-2019. The proposed metallocene LLDPE will have a capacity of 350,000 tpa, while the LDPE/EVA will have a capacity of about 150,000 tpa. The two plants are part of Petronas' planned Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project in Pengerang at Johor.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- W. R. Grace & Co., a supplier of polyolefin catalyst technology and polypropylene (PP) process technology, has contracted to license its UNIPOL PP process technology to Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) for the integrated petrochemical complex at its Al-Zour refinery and Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical Co., Ltd. for a 1-MMtpy ethylene cracker and refinery expansion project at its facility in Quanzhou, Fujian province, China, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Expected to open in 2023, the KIPIC complex is designed to produce 940 ktpy of PP, including high-end homopolymer, random copolymer and impact copolymer thermoplastic resins. KIPIC is a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), Kuwait’s national oil company. A long-time Grace customer, KPC previously licensed UNIPOL PP Process Technology for an affiliate’s JV.

Sinochem’s 350-ktpy line is expected to begin operations in 2020 to produce high-end impact copolymers. The Quanzhou operation is a subsidiary of Sinochem Group of Beijing, one of China’s four state oil companies and its leading chemical service provider. Sinochem Quanzhou previously licensed UNIPOL PP Process Technology in 2009 for a 200-ktpy line in Quanzhou that started up in 2014.

The project represents the 26th UNIPOL PP Process Technology reactor lines licensed in China. With this license, the total design capacity of UNIPOL PP lines in China will exceed 8,000 ktpy.

Grace's all gas-phase UNIPOL PP Process Technology provides the most advanced and broadest range of homopolymers, random copolymers, and impact copolymers in the industry.

As MRC wrote earlier, in July 2016, BASF closed the previously announced transaction to divest its global Polyolefin Catalysts business to W. R. Grace & Co. Earlier, W.R. Grace acquired Dow's Unipol PP process licensing and related catalyst business for USD510 million in 2013.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco and SABIC have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop a fully integrated crude oil to chemicals (COTC) complex in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which governs the execution of the front-end engineering design (FEED) before a final investment decision is made, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The COTC complex is expected to process 400,000 bpd of crude oil, which will produce approximately 9 MMt of chemicals and base oils annually and is expected to start operations in 2025.

The COTC complex will be constructed based on an innovative configuration that achieves crude oil to chemicals conversion that is unprecedented in the industry.

This MoU follows the heads of agreement (HoA) signed in June 2016 between the two companies, which governed the feasibility study for the development of a fully integrated petrochemicals complex in the Kingdom. A Saudi team developed innovative COTC configurations derived from best-in-class refining and chemical technologies.

The complex is expected to create an estimated 30,000 direct and indirect jobs, further stimulating the Kingdom’s economic diversification. By 2030 the COTC complex is expected to have 1.5% impact on the Kingdom’s gross domestic product (GDP), with investments being shared equally by both companies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Iraq is preparing to divert most future output from Kirkuk oilfield to local refineries as a conflict with Kurdish regional authorities over the use of an export pipeline to Turkey continues, said Reuters.

Kirkuk's production stopped in mid-October after Iraqi forces dislodged Kurdish fighters from Kirkuk and took over the northern region's oilfields. Diverting Kirkuk's crude to Dora, a refinery near Baghdad, and to another one in Baiji, north of the capital, would help free up more oil for exports from the southern region, the official told Reuters.

Some Kirkuk crude would also be shipped "in the near future" by trucks to Iran's Kermanshah refinery, at a rate of 30,000 bpd, the official said, declining to be identified. The takeover of Kirkuk, a mixed area which had been under Kurdish control since 2014, was part of retaliatory measures taken by the Iraqi government against a referendum for Kurdish independence held in September in northern Iraq.

Kirkuk lies just outside the official boundaries of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Its fields used to supply about half the crude carried by a pipeline across the KRG territory to Ceyhan, a Turkish export terminal on the Mediterranean. The other half is supplied by fields located inside the KRG territory. Oil flows through the pipeline were reported last week at around 270,000 bpd. Before the crisis flows usually stood at about 600,000 bpd, roughly 17% of Iraq's total exports.

OPEC's second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia, Iraq exports most of its crude from the southern region. The Kurds have refused to hand over to the Iraqi authorities Khurmala, a reservoir which is part of the geological structure of the Kirkuk oil basin but geographically inside the KRG territory, the Iraqi oil official said.

The official said the government wanted Khurmala to be under control of state-run North Oil Company, like the rest of the Kirkuk reservoirs.
MRC