contracts

SP Chemicals cancels $ 1.5b Vietnam cracker
SP CHEMICALS, a chemicals firm based in Jiangsu, China, has scrapped plans to build a $1.5b naphtha cracker in Hoa Tam in Phu Ven province in southern Vietnam.

BHP hopes to open up Olympic Dam
Approval would mean world's largest open-cast mine
AUSTRALIA'S largest underground mine will become the world's biggest open-cast mine if BHP Billiton's plans to expand its Olympic Dam operation in northern South Australia gain regulatory approval. The draft environmental impact statement for the project, now on display for a threemonth consultation period, envisages creating a pit roughly 3 km by 3 km and up to a kilometre in depth. The company says the mine's annual production of copper concentrate and uranium oxide would increase four-fold to 2.4m t ard 19,0001 respectively if the expansion reaches full capacity. Gold production would rise eightfold to 800,000 ounces annually with silver production rising almost fourfold to 2.9m ounces. The plan also requires construction of a desalination plant on the Spencer Gulf to supply the mine with up to ?00m l/d of water via a 320 km pipeline and 8Cm l/d for the public water grid. Other components include either a 270 km electricity transmission line from Port Augusta or a gas pipeline from Moomba and a new gas-fired power station, a 105 km rail line, a new airport capable of handling Boeing 737-800s, additional port facilities in South Australia and the Northern Territory, and a riew accommodation village for workers. Operations at the existing underground mine would continue while the new open pit will take an estimated five years to reach its projected size. An existing smelter would be expanded and new concentrator and hydro metallurgical plants would be built. The project needs approvals from the Australian, South Australian and Northern Territory governments if it is to go ahead.

The cracker, which was due to begin production in 2014, wouid have produced 800,000 t/y of ethylene. SP Chemicals told news agency Reuters that it blames poor economic conditions, and that it expects supply of petrochemical feedstocks from China to exceed demand within ten years, thanks to a stimulus package from the Chinese government.

Sabic and Sipchem to build petchem plants
THE Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) has joined forces with the Saudi International Petrochemical Corrpany (Sipchem) to build nine new petrochemicab plants in Al Jubail in Saudi Arabia by 2013. The seven plants to be built by Sabic, at an estimated cost of Î3.2b, will pnDduce 250,000 t/y of methyl metha acrylate (MMA), 30,000 t/y of poly methyl metha acrylate (PMMA], 200,000 t/y of acrylonitrile, 50,000 t/y of polyacrylonitrile, 50,000 t/y of polyacetyl resins, 3000 t/y of carbon fibre and 40,000 t/y of sodium cyanide. Sipchem will build a further two plants for an estimated SaiOm to produce 125,000 t/y of poly vinyl acetate and 200,000 t/y of ethylene vinyl acetate. Sipchem will provide carbon dioxide to Sabic as a raw material for MMA production, and a Sabic affiliate will supply Sipchem with ethylene from feedstock allocated by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.

Green light for Gorgon gas project, but environmental conditions apply
THE HUGE Gorgon gas project has been approved by the Australian Environmental Protection Authority (AFPA), but only if the project meets and continues to meet strict pre-conditions. The Greater Gorgon gas fields lie some 130 km off the coast of Western Australia. Tapping the estimated 40,000b ft' (3716b m') of natural gas requires running subsea pipelines to Barrow Island, which would host a gas processing facility consisting of three 5m t/y LNG plants along with facilities for shipping L G and storing emissions in tiie N rocks beneath the island. Project partners Chevron (50%), Shell, and ExxonMobil {257i, each) are keen to develop the project, which is making slow progress because Barrow Island is a class A nature reserve. AEPA says the proposed Gorgon project, expected to cost around $5Cb, could meet the authority's objectives, provided stringent conditions are met. These include an 'unaltered light horizon' for egg-laying female flatback turtles and their hatchlings. It also recommends real-time monitoring and agreed conditions for corrective action to prevent industrial activity killing coral. It says that the minister for environment should consult construction dredging and turtle experts before making any decision. Finally, Barrow Island should not be used if its geology is unsuitable for injection and long-term storage of COj. A 14-week public consultation period is underway. Chevron says that the Gorgon fields could produce 15m t/y of LNG, which would increase Australia's GDP by AÎ54b ($45.8b) over 30 years. Most of the project's LNG is already earmarked for China, Japan, and Korea. Indian company Petronet LNG announced in May that it had reached an agreement viith ExxonMobil to purchase 1.5mt/y of LNG from the Gorgon project for 20 years, with the potential for extra supply.

China jv to boost Kazakhstan uranium
CHINA and Kazakhstan have established a joint uranium mining venture in Almaty, Kaiakhstan. The Semizbai-U joint venture, which was built under a strategic partnership agreement signed in October 2008 between Kazakh national atomic company Kazatomprom and the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Co (CGNPC), holds the Irkol and Semizbai uranium mines in Kazakhstan. The Irkol in-situ leach project is expected to reach its production capacity of 750 t/y within 12 months, with plans for 500 t to be produced in 2009. The mine is forecast to operate for 25 years, producing uranium as a fuel for China's rapidly-growing nuclear power industry.

june2009

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