It appears as though it’s not all peace and harmony between the joint venture partners of plastics producer Basell Orlen Polyolefins (Plock / Poland; www.basellorlen.pl). According to local media reports, PKN Orlen (Plock / Poland; www.orlen.pl) is demanding compensation to the tune of EUR 27m plus interest from Basell Europe (Rotterdam / The Netherlands; www.lyondellbasell.com), which the latter, however, refuses to pay. The bone of contention are the prices that Basell Sales & Marketing pays for the products made by Basell Orlen Polyolefins. The matter is to be settled by the London Court of International Arbitration (www.lcia.org), with none of the parties involved willing to comment any further.

The 50:50 jv was formed in 2002 by LyondellBasell and Polish petrochemical giant PKN Orlen. Production first began in 2005. According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe capacity database (www.polyglobe.net), Basell Orlen Polyolefins can turn out 320,000 t/y of HDPE, 150,000 t/y of LDPE as well as 400,000 t/y of PP.