Mitsui announces temporary suspension of operations at Ethylene Plant of Ichihara Works

March 16 (yourpetrochemicalnews) -- Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Toshikazu Tanaka, President & CEO) announced the temporary suspension of operations at its ethylene plant in the Ichihara Works located in Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture. The plant experienced trouble during routine production and operations were temporarily suspended pending review and determination of causes. Causes of the trouble have been determined and plant operation will be suspended until the end of March (tentative) to conduct necessary repairs and maintenance.

1. Background

a) Operations at ethylene plant suspended due to trouble during production on February 28.

b) Repair work completed and plant resumed operation on March 4.

c) Concentration of methane and hydrogen in ethylene increased and plant operation suspended to determine cause.

d) Review of March 11 determined necessity of repair work on heat exchanger.

2. Financial Impact

Repair of the heat exchanger and financial loss from operation suspension is currently estimated to have a financial impact of approximately 3 billion yen.

Annual production capacity of Ichihara Workds Ethylene Plant is 553,000 tons.

MRCСправка Маркет Репорт


Shell to cut 2,000 jobs by end of 2011

SINGAPORE (ICIS news) -- Shell will cut 2,000 jobs by the end of next year and plans to sell $1-3bn worth of assets in a bid to boost profits, the oil giant said on Tuesday.

Downstream, the company aims to boost profitability in its operations by exiting 15% of its current refining capacity worldwide and 35% of its retail markets, it said in a strategy update.

Earnings from Shell's downstream operations had shrunk to $258m (┬188m) from $5.31bn for the whole of 2009.

Of the 2,000 job cuts, 1,000 were announced last month when the company released its full-year and fourth-quarter results.

Shell would be making substantial investments in new refining and petrochemicals capacity in the next 10 years, said CEO Peter Voser.

⌠Once these projects are on stream, I expect the downstream growth emphasis will switch to further strengthening our marketing for the next several years, Voser said.

⌠The priorities are for a more competitive performance, for growth, and for sharper delivery of strategy. We have more to do to drive out cost and improve the operating performance in the company, he added.

Shell's downstream unit was also adding new chemicals capacity in Singapore and refining capacity in the US, the statement said.

Meanwhile, Shell's upstream production of oil was expected reach 3.5m barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2012, an increase of 11% from 2009, the company said.

⌠Near-term pressures on downstream and gas margins remain. However, the medium-term upstream fundamentals are robust, we expect oil to trade typically in a $50-$90 range, and to trend to the upside, said Voser.

MRC


Indebted Ineos' suitors include SABIC, Kuwait's Petrochemical Industries Company

March 16 (plastemart) -- Negotiations are on between indebted British chemicals group Ineos and several parties to ink a deal to introduce a new investor or sell assets. Talks are at a preliminary stage. The potential suitors include SABIC and Kuwait's Petrochemical Industries Company.

MRC

MRC Reference

Ineos is a petrochemical group.
In Russia Ineos's interests are represented by Ineos Polyolefins and IneosChlorVinyls.

The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PVC - 4.5%;

polyethylene - 1.9%
(HDPE - 2.8%, LDPE - 1.2%);
polypropylene - 1.4%
(PP-random - 22.1%, PP-impact - 2.0%);
polystyrene - 0.9%.

Imports by polymers processing technologies:
profile extrusion;
pipe extrusion;
film extrusion;
injection molding.

Permira to withdraw from BorsodChem in two years' time

March 16 (plasteurope) -- Hungarian chemicals company BorsodChem could well be Chinese-owned in two years' time. After months of wrangling, current majority shareholders - private equity investor Permira and Vienna Capital Partners - have decided to give minority shareholder Yantai Wanhua Polyurethane an option to acquire all shares currently held by Permira and VCP.

In exchange Wanhua will extend an immediate loan of EUR 30m, followed by an additional EUR 110m within a few weeks. The companies have not provided any further financial details of the deal.

MRCMRC Reference

BorsodChem. The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PVC - 2.5%;
PVC-S - 2.6%.

Annual growth of sales in Russia over the 5 years:
PVC - 201%.

Supply by processing technologies:
profile extrusion;
compounding.

Nigerian rebels threaten to attack French oil firm

March 15 (StarAfrica) -- Nigeria's main armed group MEND threatened on Monday to attack oil firms such as French group Total in renewed violence in the country's restive oil-rich Niger Delta region.

"In the coming days, we will carry out a number of attacks against installations and oil companies across the Niger Delta and will spread out to companies such as Total which have been spared in the past," the group said in an email to AFP.

The Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta called off a three-month unilateral truce in January, angered with the Nigerian government for lack of progress in the implementation of a post-amnesty programme for former fighters in the region.

Last June, the government offered an amnesty to rebels who laid down their guns after a three-year campaign of violence against the country's multi-billion-dollar oil industry.

The campaign, which involved repeated attacks on oil installations and the kidnap of foreign oil workers, slashed Nigeria's daily oil output.

From a peak of 2.6 million barrels in 2006, production fell to as low as one million barrels per day. Since the recent amnesty programme came into effect, production has risen to two million barrels.

Total, one of Nigeria's main oil players, has been spared attacks on its operations by militants in the region.

Last month, Total announced plans to invest seven billion dollars (5.16 billion euros) in the country's oil and gas exploration and production over the next four to five years.

Two of the projects have already been announced -- the development of the Usan deep water offshore field, which will go into production in 2012, and the exploration of oil block OML 58 in the Niger Delta.

Two more areas are being studied, a company spokesman said.

MRC