On Aug. 21, 2006, Russia-based Lukoil-Neftekhim General Director Aleksey Smirnov and Germany-based Uhde President Klaus Schneider signed a contract for construction of a suspension polyvinyl chloride (S-PVC) plant in Kalush, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, as reported by Karpatnaftokhim, on the site of which the construction will take place.
The new plant, having a designed capacity of 0.3 million tons per year, will cost Lukoil-Neftekhim over $200 million, and is expected to pay back in 6.2 years. Uhde, the contractor, will do implementation of the project, including engineering and supply of equipment under a license of Vinnolit, a Germany-based PVC manufacturer. The goal of the project is to switch from intermediates to end products.
The plant, to be commissioned in 2008, will become Ukraine’s first to produce PVC. So far, Ukraine has been producing vinyl chloride, the raw material for PVC, supplying it to Poland, Hungary, Romania and other countries, and importing PVC from them at much higher prices, Karpatnaftokhim states on its web site.
The S-PVC plant construction is closing the first phase of Lukoil-Neftekhim’s investment program for modernization and development of Karpatnaftokhim. The first project within this phase was a $15 million plant for hydrogenation of C4/C5 fractions, put into operation in October 2005. Another important project, which is to be complete in 2007, and for which Lukoil also commissioned Uhde, is construction of a $130 million plant for production of chlorine and caustic soda. With completion of the S-PVC and chlorine / caustic soda projects, Karpatnaftokhim will become one of Eastern Europe largest petrochemical enterprises, according to the company’s web site.
All in all, Lukoil-Neftekhim will invest about $0.5 billion in the Karpatnaftokhim modernization and development over the years 2005 through 2008.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who was present at the signing ceremony, said successful implementation of the contract will also provide a source of raw materials for small and medium businesses to develop, and will create additional jobs in the region that has many of its residents employed abroad, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Press Service reported.
Karpatnaftokhim is a spinoff of Lukor, a joint venture formed in 2000 by Lukoil-Neftekhim and the Ukrainian concern Oriana.
Lukoil-Neftekhim is a close corporation that the Russian oil giant Lukoil established in 1997 to manage its petrochemical assets.
Uhde GmbH is a company in the Technologies segment of the ThyssenKrupp Group. The company's activities focus on the design and construction of chemical and other industrial plants.
Sources:
