Petrochemical Projects Archive for November 2007

Mitsui India to Build Polypropylene Facility

Mitsui Prime Advanced Composites India, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese company Mitsui Chemicals is planning to set up a manufacturing facility for polypropylene (PP) compounded resins at Neemrana, in Rajasthan which has an initial capacity of 15 ktpa of polypropylene compounded resins.

The petrochemical plant is expected to be operational from the first quarter of 2009. The polypropylene resins are mostly used in manufacturing bumpers, panels and pillars in automobiles.taking advantage of the state's accelerating economic growth trajectory.

Saudi Kayan Seeks $4 Billion for Jubail 

Saudi Kayan is actively seeking funding from Islamic loans ad loans from BN Amro Bank, BNP Paribas,
HSBC Holdings and Samba Financial Group. Estimated aroun $4billion is needed of which $2billion comes from Islamic loans and remaining from the Saudi General Investment Fund, Saudi Industrial Development Funds and Saudi Kayan itself.

The fund will be used to build petrochemical complex in Al-Jubail expected to be completed in 2009. The Al-Jubail petrochemical complex will be producing propylene, polypropylene, ethylene glycol and butane-1. The petrochemical plants in the complex are expected to produce 4mil tonnes of chemicals per year.

Iran National Petrochemical Company to Build Nitrogen Plants

NPC (Iran National Petrochemical Company) has recently announced of signing agreement to build three nitrogen fertilizer complexes at the Zanjan, Golestan and Lordegan regions. In total the complexes will produce 3.21 mil tonnes of urea and 2.04 mil tonnes of ammonia per year. Each complex will produce 1.07 mil tpa urea and 680 ktpa ammonia. Total cost for the complexes would amount up to Euro 1 billion.

Malaysia to Build Sabah-Sarawak Gas Pipeline

PETRONAS, Malaysian state oil company has announced the construction of Sabah-Sarawak Gas Pipeline (SSGP). The 500 km pipeline is expected to create substantial economic spin-offs for Sarawak. 410km of the pipeline will stretch in Sarawak, a state in Malaysia planned to be built between January 2008 and 2010.

Part of the components of the Integrated Oil and Gas Infrastructure Project, the pipeline will channel the gas from the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal in Kimanis, Sabah, to the Petronas Liquefied Natural Gas Complex in Bintulu, Sarawak.

The integrated project will be linked to the Sarawak Port. As much as 80 percent of the integrated project cost will be incurred in the upstream component of the project. The mega project that will definitely create economic spin-offs and also directly contribute to the overall growth of the state's construction sector.

Most of the participation will come from local companies, to protect the interests of the Sarawak State and in particular, the Bumiputera contractors who are licensed with PETRONAS will be given the priority.

The available of gas in the state has sparked discussions and speculations on expansion of petrochemical industry in the states. Gas is well known as the feedstock for the petrochemical industry.

Iran Joint Venture with Venezuela for Methanol Plant

Iran and Venezuela is entering into a joint venture for methanol entitled “VenIran Petrochemical Company (VIPC)”. The joint venture company, VIPC will be looking at setting up a methanol unit in Iran and a similar one in Venezuela, with an annual 600,000 ton output each.

Stronger Ties in Petrochemicals for Asian Countries and Egypt

Egypt seems to be seriously promoting the country for foreign investment into the country especially in the petrochemical industry in the form of construction of refineries and petrochemical plants. The Egypt government has been portraying the country as a strategic location for energy exports to Europe.

The Egypt is now looking at Asian countries where reportedly many Asian countries are holding discussion with the Egyptian ministries for refineries and petrochemical plants consideration. Reliance is looking at constructing a petrochemical refinery integrated complex capable of producing 300 000 barrels of oil per day costing around $10 billion for the project.

Japanese Mitsui and South Korea’s GS Engineering are now working on the new hydrocracker and vacuum distillation unit near Cairo which has an output of 1.5 million tons of diesel, which will be upgraded to 2.5 million in later stage. Both Asian companies have been awarded for the contract.

Chemical Company of Malaysia Plan for a Fertilizer Plant in Sabah

Fertiliser or urea is one of the petrochemical products in the petrochemical industry.

Chemical Co of Malaysia (CCM) has announced its plan to build a 130,000 tonne/year compound fertilizer plant in Sabah, Malaysia by 2009 for RM58m ($17.3m).

The cost of the land was purchased for about RM8m and CCM Agriculture was expected to invest another M$50m in the plant, the spokeswoman, who declined to be named, said. The plant was expected to be operational in 2010, she added.

CCM, which already has an existing 280,000 tonne/year fertilizer plant in Shah Alah, Selangor state also owns another plant in Bintulu, Sarawak which was expected to start-up next year, while a fourth facility in Medan, Indonesia, would be ready by 2009, the spokeswoman said.

South Korea and Algeria in Petrochemical Plants and Military Deals

Algeria is expanding its economic through petrochemical plant construction and military hardware with agreement with South Korea.

Seoul Government has confirmed that the two countries are strengthening the ties with two-way trade is expected to reach US$1 billion in the first 3 quarters this year.

"Discussions on petrochemical plant investment and wheeled armored vehicles are expected to make headway at the high-level talks planned for later in the day," said a ministry official without going into details.

South Korea companies are expected to invest in Algeria including Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co whose contract may be worth $4 billion and Samsung Electronics with plans to produce 550,000 home appliances for Algeria.

In return, Algeria, which has 123 million tons of oil reserves, may help South Korean companies gain an important base of operations in North Africa for their aggressive expansion in Africa.