Rosneft wants its Chinese partners in on a project to build a polymer plant in the far eastern city of Nakhodka. The tentative deal is in exchange for Rosneft’s participation in the construction of the Tianjin oil refinery, a joint project with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Igor Sechin said.

Sechin did not specify what share of the Eastern Petrochemical Company, which is behind the polymer plant, would go to the Chinese state-run company. The Eastern Petrochemical Company, a Rosneft subsidiary, is set to construct a petrochemical complex in Nakhodka worth an estimated $1.3 trillion rubles (US$37 billion).

The plant is expected to produce up to 6.8 mln tons of polymers a year by 2028, which would require Rosneft to increase the amount of oil pumped through the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline (ESPO) from the current 30 mln tons of crude a year to 90 mln tons.The Tianjin refinery, in the works since 2010, has a price tag of US$5 bln and is to be 51% owned by CNPC and 49 percent by Rosneft.

(plastemart.com Feb 10, 2014)