Singapore Expanding its Jurong Chemical Site

Singapore is further expanding its chemical offerings, at the Jurong site with a newly announced petrochemical complex by ExxonMobil. This is ExxonMobil second petrochemical complex in Singapore's Jurong Island, a prime area marked by the Singaporean for its chemical industry. The complex comprises of 1 million tonnes per annum ethylene cracker with downstream chemical plants. 

Central Asia Petrochemical Market Outlook 2014

Central Asia petrochemical industry is expected to boom starting from 2014 onwards. Already the continent boasts a few mega refinery-petrochemical integrated projects announced and more are expected to come. The countries in Central Asia have mostly fully recovered from the post-war and Russia influence from the late Soviet Union. 

Having domestic access to its abundant natural resources, central Asia is seen to be the new bridge between the geographical Europe (which includes Russia) and most of Asia. 

POLAND Building an Integrated Refining Petrochemical Complex

It is very strange to hear any industrial news from Eastern Europe, let alone for a new world-scale integrated refinery-petrochemical complex.

Poland’s LOTOS and Azoty have signed an agreement for a new joint venture via a special purpose vehicle

Royal Dutch Shell Entering Iraq with New $11 Billion Cracker Project

Royal Dutch Shell is entering Middle East, in particular Iraq with a force. It has recently announced a downstream petrochemical complex in the southern part of Iraq pending Heads of Agreement signing. 

The petrochemical facility will produce cracked ethylene from ethane gas cracker. The complex is eavesdropped to be costing $11 billion. Shell is the world leader in integrated energy from upstream to downstream and feedstock for the petrochemical facility will most likely to come from Shell presence in Iraq in the Majnoon oil field near Basra. The oil field is currently churning out almost 200kbpd of oil.

It is not clear when the project is expected to come on-stream. Taking the already existing MoU last year, it is expected that the project will be on fast track.

Buy and Sell Petrochemical Plants

Sometimes the quickest way to setup a chemical plant is simply by buying it off from the second hand market. As much as the idea may sometimes sound a bit off-putting, a lot of established oil and gas companies conduct acquisition of small chemical companies through M&A to position themselves in a specific value chain of the downstream business.

There are many reasons to buy an ageing asset, but one major advantage is the low entry cost and integration is possible especially if you require a feedstock that would otherwise cost alot to transport. A used chemical plant can act as a good buffer as well as hedging. 

There has also cases where it is used for training prior to real setup at mega scale of another complex in order to acquire the latent knowledge especially on operation and marketing side.

One good place to start looking for a running petrochemical plant for sale is : http://www.ippe.com/

Technology: Sinopec R&D Creates Proprietary Toluene & Methanol Plant

Sinopec has achieved another significant remarks in its hall of fame after having successfully installed a methylation unit using Sinopec proprietary technology to produce xylene from methylation of toluene and methanol. The test plant is at Sinopec's Yangzi Petrochemical after a successful industrial test run in December 2012. 

The new technology signifies world's first toluene - methanol methylation technology which opens doors to integration of petroleum and coal.

BASF & PETRONAS Terminated Plan for JV

BASF and PETRONAS have both mutually terminated their Heads of Agreement to undertake a joint venture for specialty chemical production at Pengerang site, for a participation in a mega refinery-petrochemical project in Malaysia's Southern Johor.

Both companies have been reported to have been working together for the specialty chemicals joint-venture following an Memorandum of Understanding in 2010. 

PETRONAS in a separate statement has announced for a new joint-venture proposal for specialty chemicals with a German company, Evonik for a participation in RAPID project in Malaysia.

Mega Petchem: Pertamina Building Its Petrochemical Industry

Indonesian owned oil and gas company, PT Pertamina is getting aggressive in building its petrochemical industry with the expectation of new US$5 billion petrochemical complex by 2017. The facility will be a joint venture between Pertamina and either SK Global Chemical, Mitsubishi or Thailand's PTT Global Chemical. 

The partnership will first focus to jump start the petrochemical products by boosting additinal 500 ktpa of

Indonesia Becoming Petrochemical Net Exporter

Indonesia is fast building its petrochemical industry with the government in planning to bring Indonesia petrochemical output dramatically by 2016 making it a net exporter country in terms of petrochemical products. Through its state oil and gas company, Pertamina, Indonesia is gazetting two major petrochemical hub in Muara Enim and Bintuni Bay for production of methanol, ammonia, polypropylene and polyethylene. 

The government is looking at putting up world scale refinery and petrochemical cracker with a foreign partner. South Korean Honam Petrochemical and PTT Chemicals are some of the potential partners with Pertamina. Indonesia government is also announcing considerable tax breaks to attract foreign direct investment for its growth in the petrochemical industry.

Petchem Plant: US Capitalizing Shale Gas - Mitsubishi Building a US Resin Plant

US is capitalizing and promoting the use of shale gas in its petrochemical downstream production. Mitsubishi is reportedly in planning to set up a resin processing plant in the US that takes the feedstock from a "cheap" shale gas. 

The plant is said to obtain the feedstock from Dow Chemical which is building a cracker to produce ethylene from the US shale gas. The new plant will be commissioned in 2017 producing 250 ktpa of acrylic resin.

Sabic Building Ultra-high Molecular-weight Polyethylene Plant

Sabic through its two affiliates are building a 35 ktpa ultra-high molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) plant in Jubail, Saudi Arabia which will be located at Kayan Petrochemical Complex. The plant is expected to be commissioned in 2014.

Korea Gas Corp eying shale-gas assets

Korea Gas (Kogas) is to invest $3Billion in Australia LNG Projects comprising an estimated $1 billion in Royal Dutch Shell's Prelude LNG project and at least $2 billion in the Gladstone LNG project.

Each project is expected to provide the company with around 3.5 million tons of LNG annually.

Kogas is also looking at the U.S. shale gas assets. Kogas is planning a new Houston office.

Saudi Building Ethyl Acetate and Butyl Acetate Plants

Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) through its subsidiary is planning a Saudi Riyal 350 Million ethyl acetate and butyl acetate plant (EA/BA) with production capacity of 100,000 tons per year. The new chemical plants will be located in Jubail Industrial City.

The chemical plants will be vertically integrated with the feedstocks, acetic acid and ethanol to come from another Sipchem subsidiary. The chemical complex is planned to start commercial operation in second half of 2013.

SOCAR Launched Mega Refining Petrochemical Mega Project

The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) has launched a new joint venture with global engineering and construction company Foster Wheeler for a $15bn (€11.4bn) mega project for a new refining-gas-petrochemicals complex.

The complex will produce more than 2 million tonnes per year of polymer capacity which includes

polyethylene (PE) with capacities of 670,000 tonnes/year and polypropylene (PP) with 550,000 tonnes/year.

The refinery is targeted to produce as much as 10 million tonne/year oil of products. The mega complex will also house gas processing unit which will also provide the feedstock ethane for the cracker.

BASF Investing a New Polyurethane Site in Dahej, India

BASF India is looking at investing a Rs 10 Billion (USD $195 million) for an integrated hub for polyurethane manufacturing producing care chemicals and polymer dispersions for coatings and paper at Dahej. The site is expected to be ready by 2014.

Products to be churned out from the site will be polyurethane facility will produce Elastollan TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane), Cellasto NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) parts and polyurethane systems including care chemicals for surfactants production, and polymer dispersions facility producinge Acronal and Styrofan, key ingredients for architectural coatings, adhesives and construction, Styronal and Basonal for paper coating and Basoplast for sizing.

Mega Projects Will Send Shortage of Engineering Talents

The oil and gas industry in particular to mega projects which integrate refinery and petrochemical is expecting to attract and compete for engineering talents due to the massive manpower requirement for the mega projects.

By end of this decade it is expected that at least four mega project for refinery and petrochemical integrated site will be already onstream which includes Sadara Chemical, a Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemicals joint venture in Saudi Arabia, Reliance new refinery-petchem site in India, Shell joint venture with CNOOC China and PETRONAS RAPID project for massive refinery and petrochemical project in Southern Malaysia.

These mega projects will require top talents in the senior project engineering, business development and trading and operation staff and require certain competitive edge to gain access to advanced technology and technical and market knowledge.

Shortage of engineering talents expected to heighten in the year 2015 where peak of activities will merge from all these mega projects in various stages.

Iran is Expecting New Petchem Plants

Hamidreza Seyyed Jafari, the corporate planning director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), is quoted to have mentioned that new petrochemical plants, targeting to produce propylene-chain will be launched at the refineries of Imam Khomeini, Shazand and Isfahan.

Iran is expecting to churn out as much as $14 Billion of petrochemical export revenue by 2012.

Most of the products are second level derivatives such as polyethylene, methanol, benzene, ammonia, sulphur and PVC.

It would be interesting to note that United States is currently fighting for a sanction and trying to get Europe on table on Iran.

Kuwait to Build Two Petchem Plants

Kuwait's Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company will be expanding its presence in the petrochemical business with two upcoming plants producing purified terephthalic acid (PTA), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with combined cost of US$ 700 million.

It will be a joint venture with United Industries Co with the new JV company to be called United Petrochemical Company.

Malaysia Announced New Refinery-Petchem Complex

Prime Minister of Malaysia has announced a new Refinery-Petrochemical Complex known as RAPID Project to be developed by the country's national oil company, PETRONAS in the southern part of Johor.

The complex which estimated to cost US$ 20 Billion will be decided by 2012. Currently it is under Detailed Feasibility Study and PETRONAS is finalizing the partners for the project.

It is estimated to spur domestic growth and attract foreign investment into the country. PETRONAS officials mentioned that the project will focus on high value addition products to move away from commodities.

Saudi Aramco to Increase Gulf Chemical Production to $80 Billion

Saudi Aramco in its statement says that they would want to increase the chemical production in the Gulf to $80 Billion by 2020. Saudi Aramco is targeting to increase from the current chemical industry from $40 billion to $50 billion in per-annum revenue.

The expected revenue is likely to come from Saudi's Wasit gas plant, expected to commission in 2013, UAE's Borouge, tripling capacity to 4.5 million tonnes per annum by the end of 2013, and nine new crackers and downstream plants in the Gulf by 2015.