The Catalyst Review (September 2016) - 3

COMMERCIAL NEWS
IOC Announces Rs 1.80-tn China's Zhejiang Rongsheng Plans CNY160bn
Refinery-Petchem Complex...
Investment Plan in Next
China's Zhejiang Rongsheng is building a joint venture refinery-petrochemical complex
Six Years...
Announcing its plan of investing Rs up to
1.80 trillion across verticals in the next six
years, state run Indian Oil Corporation said
it is also in talks with foreign entities to
co-invest in the investment that includes
setting up a mega refinery in coastal
Maharashtra. IOC Chairman B Ashok said
about Rs 50,000 crore will be invested
in setting up refining capacity where it
plans to add at least 24 million tonnes per
annum over the next five years, followed
closely by marketing infrastructure
including new plants, new terminals, LPG
import infrastructure and pipelines. IOC,
which is taking leadership in the mega
refinery project that is estimated to cost
Rs 1.76 trillion, will be holding a 50%
stake in the refinery while the remaining
will be split evenly between its sister
companies HPCL and BPCL. The company
is also in talks with international investors
for participating in the ambitious project.
Source: The Economic Times, 9/14/2016.

Tesoro to Acquire
Virent in Support
of Commercializing
Renewable Fuels and
Chemicals...
Virent and Tesoro announced they have
reached an agreement for Tesoro to
become Virent's new strategic owner. The
acquisition will support the scale up and
commercialization of Virent's BioForming®
technology for the production of low
carbon bio-based fuels and chemicals.
As a result of the acquisition, Virent will
become a wholly owned subsidiary of
Tesoro and remain in Madison, Wisconsin
(US). The companies initiated a strategic
relationship in January 2016, and have
worked together to establish a forward
plan to scale-up the technology and
reduce deployment risks to meet the
increasing demands for high quality,
renewable fuels and chemicals. Source:
Virent, 9/6/2016.

in Zhoushan, with the first phase due to start up in late 2018, sources familiar with
the project said. The yuan (CNY) 160bn ($24bn) project, which will be built in two
phases in China's eastern Zhejiang province, is expected to have an overall refining
capacity of 40m tonnes/year or 800,000 bbl/day. It will have an ethylene capacity of
2.8m tonnes/year, with aromatics production estimated at 10.4m tonnes/year, and will
include a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit with a total capacity of 1.2m tonnes/
year. The complex will produce a host of downstream products such as polyethylene
(PE), polypropylene (PP), ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol (EO/EG), ethylene vinyl
acetate (EVA), styrene, butadiene (BD), methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE)/butylene
1, phenol, acetone, bisphenol A (BPA), polycarbonate, acrylonitrile (ACN) and methyl
methacrylate (MMA). Construction remains at an early stage, the sources said. Zhejiang
Rongsheng is in talks with prospective partners Tongkun Group and Juhua Group to
each take up a 25% equity stake each in the project, a Tongkun source said. At least 50%
of the project will be kept by Hangzhou-based Zhejiang Rongsheng - which produces
purified terephthalic acid (PTA), polyester fibre and other related products. There were
initial market talks that China's state-owned petrochemical giant Sinopec but may no
longer be part of the project, market sources said. The whole Zhoushan refinery and
petrochemical complex is expected to be completed in four years, with the second
phase due to begin operations in 2020, the source at Tongkun Group said. Source: ICIS
Chemical Business, 9/14/2016.

Sasol to Splurge on Capital Projects in Face of Weak
Oil Prices...
Sasol, the international energy and chemicals group, will spend R135bn over the next
two years on capital projects in Southern Africa and the US despite weak oil prices. The
company's management is also confident it can maintain its expansion programme,
while paying a dividend. It spent R70bn in capex in the year to June. Sasol is building a
chemicals complex at Lake Charles, LA (US). It recently warned shareholders costs had
risen about $2bn above the previous forecast, to $11bn. It has budgeted $1.4bn to drill
for oil and gas in the production-sharing area in southern Mozambique over the next
two years. Several other capital projects are reaching completion: the $299m Gemini
joint venture with Ineos to manufacture high-density polyethylene in Texas (US), the
R2.7bn loop line 2 project to expand capacity on the existing gas supply line between
Mozambique and SA; the second phase of the Fischer-Tropsch wax expansion project at
Sasolburg, with a total cost of R13.6bn; and the Shandoni colliery, part of a R14bn minereplacement programme in SA. Source: Business Day, 9/13/2016.

Westlake Chemical Completes Acquisition of Axiall
Corp...
Westlake Chemical Corp. completed the acquisition of Axiall Corp. in an all-cash
transaction, representing an enterprise value of approximately $3.8 B, including debt
and certain other Axiall liabilities. The combined company will be the third-largest
chlor-alkali producer and the second-largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer in North
America, with expected combined pro forma revenues of $7.4 B and adjusted EBITDA
of $1.4 B for the twelve-month period ended June 30, 2016. Westlake expects the
transaction to be accretive to its earnings in the first year following close and expects
annualized cost synergies of approximately $100 MM. Source: Hydrocarbon Processing,
9/7/2016.

The Catalyst Review

September 2016

The Catalyst Review (September 2016)

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