Clariant has agreed a deal to source ethylene with a lower carbon footprint from Austrian petrochemicals firm OMV. This, the company said, comes in response to increasing consumer demand for more sustainable options and will help both it and OMV to meet their sustainability targets.

Clariant has been offering segregated biobased ethoxylates through its Indian operation since 2022. It now wishes to extend this to the wider ethylene oxide derivatives portfolio while also strengthening the supply chain by producing “in Europe, for Europe”.

Verdant Specialty Solutions has acquired its US compatriot Baze Chemical from its founder, Curtis Baze. Terms were not disclosed. Baze is based at Odessa, Texas, employs 82 employees and mainly supplies ethoxylates for the oil and gas production, water treatment and mining industries.

Baze’s four facilities on the Gulf Coast include a 12,000 m² surfactants manufacturing and custom alkoxylation facility in Palestine, Texas, which opened in 2016. This has six flexible reactors for EO and PO, abundant storage and significant capacity for growth, Verdant said.

Petronas Chemicals (PCG) has acquired PCC’s 50% stake in its Malaysian unit, PCC Oxyalkylates Malaysia. CEO Datuk Sazali Hamzah called this “another milestone for PCG in our quest to develop the group’s specialty chemicals business segment”.

PCG and German-based surfactants producer PCC are already planning an oxyalkylates facility at the Kerteh integrated petrochemical complex in Terengganu (pictured above), plus a joint R&D centre. This is due to begin construction in 2021 and enter production in 2023.