Environmental Concern Grows at Egyptian Fertilizer Plant

Canada-based fertilizer producer, Agrium who owns a $1.2bn Agrium joint-venture nitrogen fertilizer plant in Egypt, is working to address concerns on the environmental impact of the chemical plant towards the nearby community at port of Damietta.

The fertilizer chemical plant is scheduled for completion in 2010 with capacity of two 1,200 tonne/day ammonia plants and two urea plants of production capacities of 1,925 tonnes/day.

State Oil Co of Azerbaijan (Socar) Eyeing Romanian refinery Arpechim

State Oil Co of Azerbaijan (Socar) is eyeing to acquire Romanian refinery Arpechim. The news comes after Socar recent acquisition of Turkey's Petkim.

New PVC Plant in India to be Comissioned

India's Chemplast Sanmar Limited (CSL) is expected to commission its greenfield polyvinyl chloride (PVC) chemical plant at Cuddalore in Tamilnadu State by end of 2008 with a capacity of 200,000 tonnes/year of PVC at the Cuddalore plant.

Feedstock for the intermediate vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) will be supplied from its Egyptian associate TCI Sanmar Chemicals LLC (TCI). The parent company, Sanmar group had announced that it is also evaluating the prospects of producing ethylene dichloride (EDC) and VCM at the complex located at Port Said in Egypt.

Progress Heating Up at Al-Jubail Petrochemical Complex by Saudi Kayan

Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co (Kayan) who is reportedly going worldwide scouting for employees has awarded all the contracts to build its mega petrochemical complex which now stands at 73% progress.

The petrochemical complex at Al-Jubail will produce 6m tonnes/year of petrochemical products including ethylene, propylene, monoethylene glycol (MEG), polypropylene and other chemicals due to be commissioned late this year.

India Developing Bioethanol Technology

India's Praj Industries has set up a bioethanol R&D (research and development) centre looking at nullifying the impact of energy feedstock on food and animal feed which has lead the R&D centre to achieve a breakthrough in technology for production of bioethanol from lignocellulosic feedstock. Praj Industries is currently in the midst of commercialising its patented technology of producing ethanol from sweet sorghum with interested oil companies.

Map Ta Phut Petrochemical Complex Commission in 2010

Map Ta Phut Olefins, a new venture by Thai producer Siam Cement Group which is now in heavy construction of its benzene, toluene and mixed xylenes (BTX) facility will be starting up the petrochemical complex in the second-half of 2010 which is integrated with its new naphtha cracker.

The naphtha cracker has an ethylene capacity of 900,000 tonnes/year and 400,000 tonnes/year of aromatics. This is an addition to its existing facility produces 190,000 tonnes/year of benzene and 90,000 tonnes/year of toluene.

New Demand for Methanol: Fuel Cell

Following the US Transportation Department approval to permit in-flight use of methanol-powered fuel cells for laptop computers it is expected that a slight boost will be seen in both methanol and fuel cells.

Passengers will be allowed to use methanol fuel cells in commercial airliner passenger and crew compartments, major manufacturers of portable consumer electronic devices such as in mobile phones, digital cameras, DVD players as well as laptops.

SABIC Ar-Razi New Methanol Plant On-Stream in May

Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) joint venture mega methanol plant in Saudi Arabia, Ar-Razi 5 is expected to come on stream in May as per schedule. Rumours have spread that there was insufficient gas for the plant lagging the on-stream date.

Saudi Methanol Co, a joint venture of SABIC and a Japanese consortium will have a total capacity of methanol 5.7 million tonnes/year if the new mega methanol chemical plant is on-stream at Al-Jubail.

Another $570 Million Investment by Russia Eurochem

200 will mark another Eurochem, a Russian fertilizer producer plan to invest $570 million to upgrade its existing production facilities and building new units including a new 50,000 tonnes/year melamine facility at Azot, Nevinnomyssk.

The chemical plant which costs $277m using Germany's Lurgi process technology, is due on-stream in 2011. Overall, Eurochem is expecting an increase in its Azot, Novomoskovsk urea capacity by 25% to 2,000 tonnes/day as part of Eurochem's vision to conquer the Russian market.

Brazil Cosan Acquiring ExxonMobil

Brazilian energy giant - Cosan which produces Brazil's major ethanol is planning to acquire ExxonMobil’s operations in Brazil for $826m for a direct control of more than 1,500 fuel stations in Brazil.

The take-over will inherit $163m in debt from ExxonMobil and $35m in net credits specific for the fuel stations operation. However, ExxonMobil is still in charge of its major chemical plants and upstream oil and gas operations especially at offshore Santos Basin.

Analysts are looking at the strategic move as a favorable one since it lets Brazil Cosan to take charge of the fuel stations for distribution of its vast production of Brazil's ethanol.

PVC Producers in China Incompetitive

Due to overcapacity, the global ethylene prices expected to drop in 2008. China’s PVC producers who mainly are acetylene-based route method of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production facing heavy competition despite China’s massive coal deposits.The acetylene-based PVC, is facing overcapacity from ethylene prices downward trend making ethylene-based PVC production to become increasingly profitable.

Coal is currently the main source of fuel for China’s power plants, and the massive growth of the Chinese economy could create a bottleneck in the supply of coal for acetylene production, something PVC producers are worrying over at the moment.

New Biodiesel and Glycerine Process by Nippon Shokubai

Japanese chemical producer, Nippon Shokubai has developed a new mainstream catalytic process to produce biodiesel and glycerine that generates much lesser waste than current technology.

Nippon Shokubai's new method process technology also reduces the cost to build and maintain the plant by as much as 10%, and also improved the ratio of converting vegetable oils into fatty acid ester, a biodiesel fuel, by 3% and on top of that, the byproduct glycerine produced by this method is very high in purity (over 98wt%). At 98% wt purity, the glycerin could be used as a feedstock for other chemicals without any refining.

US to Ban Bisphenol-A

US Senator Chuck Schumer is in the midst of proposing a legislation to ban the sale of children’s products and food containers containing bisphenol A due to its linkage in the risk of cancer and developmental defects to high doses of BPA.

BPA is used in the manufacture of polycarbonate (PC) for PC bottles especially for PC baby products. America's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart is fast reacting to the news by phasing out products containing BPA. Others like Playtex Infant Care and Nalgene Outdoor Products are also in the move to phase out products containing the chemical.

Malaysia Subsidy to End by 2014

Former Malaysian prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has advised the nation that Malaysia may no longer afford to provide price subsidy for fuel when it becomes a net importer of oil in 2014. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is also the advisor for PETRONAS, Malaysian national oil company. As of current, Malaysia's oil production is able to export 250,000 barrels per day, making it in profit when its price increases.

Paulinia Polypropylene Plant by Braskem

After years of construction and planning, Brazil petrochemicals major Braskem is starting up a 350,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) plant at Paulinia in Sao Paulo state in the Brazil which had costed $420million. The feedstock for the plant is supplied by Brazil oil major Petrobras from the refineries in the Sao Paulo state.

The plant is expected to increase Braskem’s overall annual PP production capacity to 1.1million tonnes/year, a producer and market leader in South America.

First Jatropha Plant By Wartsila Finland

Finland company, Wartsila has won a $11 million contract to build a 9 megawatt combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Belgium that will run on vegetable oil from the jatropha plant and to produce both electricity and heat.

This will be the first Jatropa facility in the world using carbon dioxide neutral fuels that do not compete with food crops since Jatropha oil was a liquid biofuel with great potential as it could be harvested outside the world’s rainforest areas, even near deserts.

Commissioning of the plant is expected to begin in February 2009 operated by Greenpower NV, a joint venture of Thenergo and four local agricultural companies and a private investor.

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$1 Billion Petrochemical Complex Project by Saudi OSOS

Saudi Arabia's Osos Petrochemicals is planning to develop its estimated $1bn polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) petrochemical complex. The earlier plan was to include Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) for a 35% stake but SABBIC withdrew from the project.

The chemical plant will be located at Yanbu on the Red Sea coast with capacity of 60,000 tonnes/year of PBT, 50,000 tonnes/year of butanediol, 3,500 tonnes/year of tetrahydrofuran, and 85,000 tonnes/year of maleic anhydride acid. For the cost of $1 billion for the construction, analysts are considering the cost to be a bargain.

The polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) complex is in commercial phase with EPCC (engineering, procurement and construction contractors) for award of contracts in the end of the third quarter of 2008. A few contractors including Oslo-based Aker Kvaerner with China's Sinopec, and South Korea's GS Engineering & Construction, Samsung Engineering Company and Hanwha Engineering & Construction are currently in the bidding process for the award of construction contract.

Formosa Plastics Starting It's New PP Plant

Formosa Plastics had obtained governmental approval to receive propylene feedstock at its Ningbo port terminal, with the first refrigerated propylene cargo and eventually to start feeding feedstock propylene into Farmosa Plastics's new 450,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) plant in Ningbo.

The start-up has had many hiccups due to governmental regulations and construction problems and the successful start-up of Formosa’s Ningbo PP plant would tighten the critical propylene supply in the market.

Condensate Becoming New Appetite Due to NE Asia Heavy Naphtha Poor Margin

Several heavy naphtha end-users in northeast Asia are turning to condensate instead of heavy naphtha as a feedstock due to poor margins from the aromatics market despite uptight and limited condensate supplies. Condensate prices are usually pegged to either naphtha or crude formula prices generally $5/tonne lower than heavy naphtha.

Most of traded condensates will go to the hands of buyers from China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Condensate supply come from the Middle East, southeast Asia or Australia via ships. Companies that supply condensates are many, among them are Qatar’s Tasweeq, Indonesia’s BPMIGAS, Vietnam’s Petechim and Malaysia’s PETRONAS.

Huntsman and Hexion Merger Extended

US producer Hexion Specialty Chemicals which is under way of merging with Huntsman has extended the termination date of the Huntsman merger agreement by 90 days to 4 July 2008. This would give the US regualtors more time to evaluate the proposed merger agreement for the two companies.

Methanol for Energy only for China

Methanol usage in the energy sector is widely used in China due to a number of reasons unique to the nation such as the cheap and abundant supply of coal as feedstock for making methanol.

Refining margins in China are currently negative due to lower price of gasoline and even much lower methanol prices. The factor is also driven by transportation infrastructure where local auto manufacturers are looking to capture energy market share with 'low running costs' and the Chinese government was pushing for coal to replace part of energy derived from crude.

Sasol Producing First Ever Synthetic Jet Fuels

Sasol has made a history when the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and other authorities have approved Sasol's coal-to-liquids (CTL) synthetic jet fuel, the first evert synthetic jet fuel approved for commercial airplanes which will be produced at Sasol's Synfuels plant in Secunda, South Africa.

The plan has long been considered but only recently the authorities realised the need to develop aviation fuel from feedstocks other than crude oil in current escalating demand. Sasol's synthetic jet fuels has less emissions due to its limited sulphur making it an environmental friendly fuel.

Foreign Company Building Refinery in Malaysia

Gulf Petroleum is reportedly succeeding in getting government approval to build US$5 Bln Integrated Oil & Gas Complex In Malaysia. Qatar based Gulf Petroleum Ltd has received the final and official approvals from the Malaysian government to build the integrated oil and gas complex in Manjung, Perak.

This is confirmend by the Gulf Petroleum president Ir Abdulaziz Hamad Al-Delaimi which will proceed with the project together with other consortium members comprising major oil and gas groups, including prominent banking and insurance groups.

The proposed site as offered by the state government comprises of 400-hectare site in Manjung offered by the Perak state government.

UAE Borouge Increasing PP/PE Capacity

United Arab Emirates plastics producer, Borouge is planning to increase its polyolefins including Polyethylene and Polypropylene capacity by 2.5m tonnes per annum by the end of 2014 under a feasibility study for the expansion project, codenamed Borouge 3.

The additional feedstock will be supplied Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) through its planned expansions at upstream which if succeeded will boost Borouge's total production capacity to 4.5m tonnes/year to meet the growing demands of polyethylene and polypropylene markets in the Middle East and Asia.

Analysts expect that the feasibility study will be successful since Borouge is a 40:60 joint venture between Borealis and Adnoc.

Methanol Production Cost Arising in China

China methanol makers from medium-to-large coal methanol producers in China are feeling the pinch of rising costs whether in feedstock, inland transport and shipping. Coal prices, previously known as in abundance and unwanted in China, is the most common feedstock for methanol production in China.

Surging fuel oil costs making shipping more expensive especially since methanol cargoes are shipped within China via the country's rivers, even the inland road and rail transport has also become more expensive. On top of these factors, the yuan has appreciated and the government has curbed incentives for the methanol producers to export the product.

The greatest hit is of course the feedstock price of coal which has increased by 10-30% from last year forcing producers working with technology providers to have greater efficiency in coal gasification.

Hefty $1.2 Million Environmental Penalty for ConocoPhilips

An environmental penalty of $1.2m constituing civil penalty to resolve environmental violations has been summoned to ConocoPhillips' 146,000 bbl/day Texas refinery in Borger by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) due to violation of effluent limits in its Clean Water Act for over 2,000 occasions between 1999 and 2006.

The discharged water effluent was found to contain selenium and whole effluent toxicity affecting aquatic organisms. ConocoPhillips has managed to run the refinery in compliance with the regulations after the court order which also requires ConocoPhillips to monitor surrounding waters for selenium levels.