At yesterday’s meeting in Vienna, the Borealis (www.borealisgroup.com) supervisory board approved a €17-million investment to upgrade one of its polyethylene (PE) plants in Porvoo, Finland. The project includes a new ethylene compressor as well as an upgrade of the monomer…
Natural gas production in the U.S. will be 25% greater from 2011 to 2035 than previous assessments, and the share of U.S. energy consumption accounted for by imported energy will decline to 18% of the total by 2035, according to…
North American chemical producers who rely on natural gas feedstocks are in a strong industry position heading into 2011, says a report released today from Booz & Co., Inc. (New York; www.booz.com). The 2011 Chemicals Industry Perspective report discussed the…
The Fieldbus Foundation (Austin, Tex.; www.fieldbus.org) today announced that its Foundation High Speed Ethernet Remote I/O (HSE-RIO) preliminary specification is now available to its membership for review. Part of the foundation’s Wireless and Remote I/O initiative, this specification defines the…
Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Sibur (Moscow; www.sibur.ru), Russia’s leading petrochemical company, for the establishment of a joint venture with the Scientific Research and Design Institute for Gas Processing (NIPIgaspererabotka) in Krasnodar,…
Foster Wheeler AG, (Zug, Switzerland,; www.fwc.com) announced today that its Global Engineering and Construction Group has acquired the CEntry Sulfur Recovery proprietary technology from FLSmidth & Co.. The acquisition includes patents, know-how and skilled personnel. The terms of the transaction…
Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) and Dutch company Royal DSM N.V. (Heerlen, the Netherlands; www.dsm.com) have reached an agreement in principle involving the sale of DSM Elastomers to Lanxess for €310 million on a cash and debt-free basis. DSM Elastomers…
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) is studying the construction of an epichlorohydrin production plant in Taixing, China, with an initial capacity of 100,000 ton/yr. The plant, which is expected to start producing in 2013, will be based on Solvay's innovative…
Dynasol, a subsidiary of Repsol (www.repsol.com) and the Kuo Group, has signed an agreement with China’s Shanxi Northern Xing’an Chemical Industry (Xing’an) to produce and market rubber in China. The two companies are to set up a joint company which…
Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) announced today that Socar & Turcas Rafineri A.S. (Stras; www.socarturcas.com.tr), the joint venture of the State Oil Co. of the Azerbaijan Republic (Socar) and Turcas Petrol A.S. (ISE:TRCAS), awarded the firm a project management consultant…