DATE : 2013-08-13

Hungary's TVK has approved the basic engineering package for its planned 130,000 tonne/year Butadiene (BD) installation, the company said on Tuesday.

The acceptance of the package from a consortium of German process engineering firm Lurgi and Hungary's OTF Contracting means TVK remains on course to construct the plant and launch its commercial production by the first quarter of 2015, it added.

“Preparation of the detailed design is ongoing, tenders for several items of key equipment have been closed... and site mobilisation is expected in September,” TKV said in an update on the forint 30bn ($134m, €101m) BD project in Tiszaujvaros, northern Hungary.

In May this year, analysts at investment bank WOOD & Company noted that OMV – an Austria-based competitor of TVK's owner, Hungary's MOL group – had underlined the growing trend of oil and petrochemical groups moving to build their value chains by investing in BD production.

OMV is aiming to construct a €230m ($307m) BD plant in Burghausen, southeast Germany, by mid-2015, with the aim of accounting for approximately 6% of European BD production.  

SOURCE: Icis News