News in brief

ARCO Chemical has sold its Maidenhead-based European rigid foam polyols business to Elastogran, a BASF subsidiary. There will be no transfer of staff, and Elastogran will not take over any of ARCO's plants, says BASF.

BOC bails out of carbides

New Jersey-based chemical manufacturer Philipp Brothers has bought Odda Smelteverk, a Norwegian calcium carbide producer, from BOCfor £11.5 million; the US firm has also acquired the remainder of BOC's carbide businesses. 'The move is part of BOC's stated intent to focus on its core industrial gases business,' comments BOC Gases Europe regional director Barry Beecroft.

Dominion sells East Midlands

PowerGen is to pay £1.9 million to US group Dominion Resources for East Midlands Electricity; however, it has not bought the group's power stations. Dominion bought East Midlands for £1.3 billion two years ago; the company was recently landed with a £96 million windfall tax bill.

E&E buys distribution firm

Ellis & Everard is to pay £7.8 million for Massachusetts-based Performance Polymers, one of the US's largest independent polymer distributors. The deal, which will be funded by a stock market placing, is part of a move away from commodity chemicals, says E&E chief executive Peter Wood.

Shell's flare for environment

Royal Dutch/Shell is to increase the flaring of natural gas from oilfields in Nigeria in an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The company's Nigerian operation which has been opposed by environmental and human rights organisations produces large amounts of unwanted methane along with crude oil. This could be vented to the atmosphere, but in its first externally verified environmental audit, the company explains that the global warming potential of this methane is 25 times greater than that of the carbon dioxide generated by burning the gas. Shell stressed that it was looking for markets for the gas in nearby refineries.