Environment & Safety Gas Processing/LNG Maintenance & Reliability Petrochemicals Process Control Process Optimization Project Management Refining

Petrochemicals

Williams to expand Louisiana ethylene plant by 44%

Williams will expand its olefins production facility in Geismar, Louisiana, the company announced on Tuesday. The expansion will increase the facility's ethylene production by 600 million pounds/year to a new annual capacity of 1.95 billion pounds. It is expected to be completed the third quarter of 2013.

Technip wins Brazil fertilizer plant engineering deal

Technip was awarded a contract for providing basic and front-end engineering services on Petrobras’ grassroots fertilizer complex to be located at Uberaba, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The deal was awarded within the framework of a cooperation partnership with Haldor Topsoe, Technip officials said.

Cabot JV opens black masterbatch plant in China

Cabot has opened its new masterbatch plant in Tianjin, China, the specialty chemicals producer said on Monday. Construction of the $20 million black masterbatch project began in February 2011.

Neste Oil to sell Belgium polyalphaolefin plant to Chevron Phillips Chemical

Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) has agreed to acquire a polyalphaolefin (PAO) plant located in Beringen, Belgium, from Neste Oil.

Berkshire Hathaway closes on $9.7bn Lubrizol deal

Berkshire Hathaway has officially completed its acquisition of US-based specialty chemicals firm Lubrizol for $135/ share in an all-cash transaction. The transaction, having been overwhelmingly approved by Lubrizol shareholders and having met all US and non-US regulatory filing requirements, is valued at approximately $9.7 billion, including approximately $0.7 billion in net debt.

Technip to engineer Gabon ammonia-urea project

Gabon Fertilizers awarded France-based Technip with a strategic engineering contract for a world class grassroots ammonia-urea fertilizer project to be developed at Port Gentil, Gabon.

Huntsman plots expansion for US epoxy resins

US-based chemicals major Huntsman has begun initial plans to expand its epoxy resins product lines by launching a multi-million dollar engineering study at its facility in McIntosh, Alabama.

Chevron Phillips, Sumitomo venture to shut down Texas polypropylene unit

Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) has reached an agreement with partner Sumitomo Chemical Co. to permanently shut down polypropylene assets jointly owned by the Phillips Sumika Polypropylene Co. (PSPC) venture in Pasadena, Texas.

Dow to use AspenTech engineering software on petrochemical projects

US software and services provider Aspen Technology (AspenTech) said that Dow Chemical is using its aspenOne engineering software to guide capital-cost decisions on large-scale petrochemicals projects.

INEOS licenses technology for China PP project

INEOS Technologies has licensed its Innovene PP process technology for the manufacture of polypropylene homopolymers, random copolymers and impact copolymers to the Ningxia Baofeng Energy in Ningxia, China. The 300,000 tpy Innovene PP plant will produce a wide range of polypropylene products to serve the growing market in China.