$1.8 Billion Gas Deal Between KOGAS and Uzbekneftegaz

Korea Gas (KOGAS) consortium is signing a massive $1.8 Billion investment on gas deal to develop gas field and downstream of a cracker complex via a joint venture of 50:50 with Uzbekistan’s Uzbekneftegaz. Uzbekneftegaz is the state-oil company of Uzbekistan and the plan is to process the natural gas from Uzbekistan's Ust-Yurt region. Construction is expected to complete between 2008 and 2010.

The downstream chemical cracker complex will use the Ust-Yurt gas as feedstock for production of ethylene, 360,000 tonnes/year of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and 80,000 tonnes/year of polypropylene (PP), the official added.

$270 Million Base Oil Investment by Lukoil

2017 will mark another investment expansion by Lukoil which is planning for a $270 million base oils production by first increasing production of group III oils from 24,000 tonnes/year to 50,000 tonnes/year by 2010.

They are also looking at improving quality of Volgograd learning from the success of Lukoil's Perm and Norsi quality improvement. Another Lukoil base oils production facility is in Russia is located at Nizhni Novogorod (Norsi). The Perm facility has produced the first 600 tonnes of brightstock in January 2008 and is on an uptrend to increase production.

Chevron Getting Wild in Kazakhstan

Chevron, a spin-off company from Standard Oil with its affiliate Tengizchevroil is progressively expanding operation at the Tengiz Field in Kazakhstan.

According to today's reserve, Tengiz is the world's deepest producing super-giant oil field, in which Chevron is planning to use the volumes as commercial gas, propane, butane and sulphur, apart from injecting it to the reservoir.
Due completion, the facility will be able to produce 90,000 bbl/day and once the Tengizchevroil's stabilizes, the end capacity will shoot up to approximately 400,000 bbl/day.

The Tengiz project will also include Chevron's the Sour Gas Injection (SGI) project and the front end of the Second Generation Plant (SGP).

Shareholders for Tengizchevroil are Chevron with 50%, KazMunaiGas with 20%; ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures at 25%; and LUKArco with 5%.

Sasol Polymer Unit Blast: Employees Charged Instead of Sasol

Sasol Chemicals, a South African Chemical Company has been discharge from any allegation towards the 2004 blast that killed several people at a plant in Secunda near Johannesburg. The South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) instead has made a decision to charge two Sasol employees for the deadly blast at Sasol polymers unit.

NPA has claimed that there is no evidence showing that Sasol to be responsible for any negligence regarding the blast.

The unlucky two Sasol employees would be charged with culpable homicide, which killed 10 people and injured scores of others. South African trade union Solidarity had demanded that South Africa’s Labour Department publish the report on the explosion for the public, but has been denied.

European Companies Urged to Grow in Specialty Chemicals

Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) chemical companies were urged to grow in specialty chemicals. European specialty market’s production value expected to rise 7% a year until 2012, compared to only 4% for the commodity market.

Long gone the commodities game of sustainable long-term success with a focus on operational excellence, the money now is in specialty markets as value-added chemicals.

CEE companies should venture into huge strong domestic demands for specialty chemicals such as titanium oxide (TiO2), soda ash, methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), toluene di-isocyanate (TDI), specialty plastics and adhesive.

In general, CEE companies have great advantage in terms of highly qualified and motivated workforce with solid experience and tradition in running petrochemical plants. The biggest obstacle currently is probably sourcing of oil and gas, which most CEE companies are dependant on Russia.

Environmental: PC Bottles Release BPA for Hot Liquid

BPA, a substance that has been shown to affect reproduction and brain development in animal studies is found to be realeased in bottles containing hot liquids. BPA (Bisphenol-A) is a harmful chemical released from polycarbonate plastic bottles.

Scientists from University of Cincinnati found that hot liquids increased the rate of BPA released 55 times more. This has not included the increment if you repeatedly scrub, dish-wash and boil polycarbonate baby bottles. In a study using boiling water, the rate of release from individual bottles ranged from 0.2 to 0.8 nanograms/hour to a range of 8-32 nanograms/hour after exposure.

Saudi Chemanol Floating IPO for Expansion

Chemanol, a Saudi Arabia’s Methanol Chemicals Co is looking at ways to finance $302m facility to fund the company’s expansion plans most probably by an initial public offering (IPO) for a sale of 50% of Chemanol shares for $200m.

Saudi Arabia's Methanol Chemicals Co is a major producer and international supplier of premium grade formaldehyde and derivative products, which previously known as Saudi Formaldehyde Chemical Co.

The$302 facility will expand Chemaol's operations, to convert gas from raw materials to use internally and to decrease its dependance on Saudi Aramco. Currently, Chemaol receives gas feed from Saudi Aramco. The IPO will be arranged by SAAB, SAMBA, Riyadh bank, Saudi Hollandi Bank, Alahli bank and Arab Banking Corporation (Bahrain).