Petrochemicals news in brief

30 April 2012 00:00  [Source: ICB]

MANGALORE DECLARES FORCE MAJEURE ON IX
India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals has declared force majeure on isomer-grade xylene (IX) supplies for second-half April and first-half May. The company has closed two-thirds of its refinery because of a water supply shortage.

METHANEX AGREES TO BUY TEXAS OUTPUT
Canadian producer Methanex has signed an offtake agreement to buy a significant portion of the methanol to be produced at a plant in Beaumont, Texas, US, due to be restarted in June. The plant, owned by Egypt-based Orascom Construction Industries, began producing ammonia in December 2011 and will produce 750,000 tonnes/year methanol.

JAM STARTS EXPORTS FROM BUTENE-1 UNIT
Jam Petrochemical in Iran has begun exporting from its newly commissioned butene-1 plant, The 100,000 tonne/year facility at Assaluyeh started up in mid-April. Part of the output will be used captively in Jam's 300,000 tonne/year low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant at the same site. Jam is now the largest butene-1 producer in Iran, overtaking Amir Kabir Petrochemical and Shazand Petrochemical, which produce 20,000 tonnes/year and 7,000 tonnes/year, respectively.

IRAN METHANOL MAY SHUT ON SANCTIONS
Iranian producer Zagros Petrochemical may shut one of its methanol plants - Zagros II with a capacity of 1.65m tonnes/year - at Assaluyeh because of shipping problems. Shipowners are unwilling to call on Iranian ports because of a lack of insurance coverage. EU sanctions will ban EU insurers from providing cover for tankers carrying Iranian crude oil and petrochemicals from July 1.

By: Elaine Burridge
+44 20 8652 3214

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