Chexpress - August 6, 2014

North America

Outage

Dow Chemical Co. could lose more than 200 million pounds of ethylene production as a result of an unplanned outage at its plant in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada. The affected ethylene unit went offline on July 22 and back online at low operating rates on August 4. Necessary repairs are being made to bring the operating rates back to full production as quickly as possible.

Investment

Renewable Energy Group plans to spend $15 million in the next 12 months on the company’s Geismar facility, which makes diesel from animal fat. Part of the planned spending will go to make long-term improvements that will allow the plant to use a broader mix of feedstocks. The biofuels plant hasn’t operated since October 2012, and the company has not provided a date for its expected restart. The plant has been renamed REG Geismar.

Asbestos Claims

RPM International plans to spend nearly $800 million as part of a preliminary deal to fund a trust that resolves asbestos personal injury claims tied to a business owned by its Specialty Products Holding Corp. The agreement still needs the approval of the claimants as well as the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

World

Export

Gunvor Group will start exporting gasoline from its oil terminal in Ust-Luga, Russia. Initial August exports will total around 80,000 tons of gasoline from Surgutneftegaz’s 420,000 barrel/day Kirishi refinery.

Investment

General Electric Co. plans to invest $2 billion in Africa by 2018 to boost infrastructure, worker skills and access to energy. The company’s investments include deals to work on increased electric grid reliability during peak power demands in Algeria and to generate uninterrupted power for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp’s state oil refinery. GE also extended for five years a “country-to-company” agreement with Nigeria for the development of infrastructure projects, the transfer of skills and technology, and a $1 billion investment in railway and power equipment in Angola.

[h2_header]LNG Project/h2_header]

Inpex Corporation has completed its Ichthys LNG Project’s dredging program in Darwin Harbour, Australia. The program started in 2012 and involved the safe dredging and disposal of more than 565 cubic million feet of rock and sand from the harbor to create a deep shipping channel and berthing area for large liquefied natural gas (LNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and condensate carriers servicing LNG processing facilities at Bladin Point.