OREANDA-NEWS. October 11, 2011. Within the framework of the working visit to China by Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, one of the world's largest energy and chemical companies, China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec Corp.) and Russia’s leading petrochemical holding company SIBUR have entered into a Memorandum of Extended Cooperation on the possible formation of two joint ventures for the production of butadiene nitrile rubber (NBR) in Krasnoyarsk (Russia) and Shanghai (China). The Parties are also considering cooperating in the area of polyisopren rubber (IR) and in other areas, including the petrochemical feedstock supply and the supply of unconventional sources of feedstock to Russia and China. In addition they have agreed to hold talks about co-operation opportunities in upstream and downstream.

If joint ventures are formed, SIBUR will provide polymerization and finishing technology for two of them. The existing NBR assets of the Krasnoyarsk rubber plant in Russia will be expanded to 56,000 tons per year, and the Shanghai facility will have a production capacity of approximately 50,000 tons per year.

Commenting on the cooperation and development, Sinopec express that the two joint ventures will strengthen the friendly cooperation relationship between Sinopec and SIBUR, this is another step towards Sinopec’s commitment to service China’s rapidly growing manufacturing sector for Chinese fast increasing market demands.

“SIBUR has advanced technologies for the production of the synthetic rubber, which in partnership with Sinopec will serve the growing needs of Chinese industry”, said SIBUR’s CEO Dmitry Konov commenting on the joint ventures. “We are satisfied with the dynamics of negotiation and hope to make a deal”.