Industry: Methanol & ammonia

BP to sell over 50% of petrochemicals business and prepares for IPO BP announced that it plans to consolidate the Olefins and Derivatives (O&D) division of its petrochemicals business into a stand-alone entity able to operate separately from the BP Group. The new O&D business will incorporate more than half of the $13 billion of […]

NOVA and BP in agreement with Grace Davison to supply new NOVACAT™T Ziegler-Natta polyethylene catalyst NOVA Chemicals and BP Petrochemicals announced that they have entered into a long-term supply arrangement with the polyolefin catalyst business of Grace Davison for the manufacture of NOVACAT T advanced Ziegler-Natta catalysts. These catalysts, which are designed for gas-phase polyethylene […]

BP licenses the Innovene® polypropylene technology line to Sinopec BP and China Petrochemical International Company, a Sinopec Corporation company, have reached an agreement to license BP’s Innovene gas phase polypropylene process technology for the upgrading of Sinopec’s Beijing Yanhua Petrochemical Company Limited Polypropylene manufacturing complex. The plant will produce homopolymers and random copolymers and will […]

Basell unveils novel Ziegler-Natta PP catalysts Basell introduced a new Ziegler-Natta catalyst family based on ethyl-benzoate as an internal donor that improves polymer morphology and bulk density. The proprietary ethyl-benzoate catalysts are designed specifically for gas-phase polypropylene processes and are also suitable for liquid-phase polymerization. Basell has developed this catalyst on an advanced magnesium chloride […]

Dow to idle 900 million pounds of polyethylene capacity Dow Chemical announced that it had begun the process of idling about 900 million pounds of North American PE capacity due to low polyethylene demand, higher feedstock costs and eroding polyethylene margins. Dow began the idling process Aug. 14, and the company said that most of […]

BP and Philips starts up HDPE Plant BP Solvay and Chevron Phillips Chemical have started up their joint 700-million lbs/year high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant at Cedar Bayou, TX. The new plant replaces three lines at Deer Park, TX which had a combined HDPE capacity of 260 million pounds per year. BP Solvay Polyethylene North […]

DuPont Dow Elastomers starts up new 135,000 MT plant for Engage® polyolefin elastomers DuPont Dow Elastomers has announced that in May 2003 it produced the first prime pounds from its new 300 million pounds/135,000 MT per year facility for Engage polyolefin elastomers in Plaquemine, Louisiana. With this new facility on stream, DuPont Dow’s total capacity […]