By Malini Hariharan …is a debate that has starting moving out of the US. A desire for energy independence has seen countries like Poland to embrace shale gas with the government welcoming US companies to quickly develop the country’s reserves, estimated at 5.3 trillion cubic metres. This would be enough to meet Poland’s annual gas […]
Asian Chemical Connections
The slow trek downstream
By Malini Hariharan Nearly two years after SABIC and ExxonMobil signed an agreement for a multi-billion dollar 50:50 joint-venture elastomers complex iin Saudi Arabia, the two majors have yet to take a final decision on the project. At last year’s GPCA forum in December, Mohamed Al-Mady, SABIC’s CEO, had indicated that the two companies were waiting […]
ExxonMobil Says Qatar C2s Still On
By John Richardson EXXONMOBIL is insisting that its cracker and derivatives project with Qatar Petroleum is still on despite a media report to the contrary. It certainly seems as if there are several suitors for this particular bride – perhaps the last major feedstock parcel available for petrochemicals in Qatar for some time. The economics […]
ExxonMobil Formally Out Of Qatar C2s – Report
Qatar Builds Its Future Source of picture: The New York Times By John Richardson EXXONMOBIL and Qatar Petroleum have formally ended their agreement to build a $6bn petrochemical complex in Qatar, says a report by the Middle East Economic Digest. This follows the earlier MEED report that discussions to break-up the JV had […]
Operating problems strike Asian polyolefins
By Malini Hariharan Just when polyolefin markets have started recovering operating issues are cropping up at plants in Asia. ExxonMobil was forced to shut its 600,000 tonnes/year polyethylene (PE) plant in Singapore on Tuesday for two weeks due to undisclosed problems. The PE plant had faced problems in early July when it was shut down […]
Singapore’s New Petrochemicals Strategy
Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands complex Source of picture: Washington Pos By John Richardson “SUCCESS in this business, whether you are tracking price direction or planning new investments, is 95% about feedstock,” says a senior European-based sales manager with a global polyolefin producer. So perhaps it shouldn’t be a great surprise that a […]
Singapore Confirms Plans For 6-8m tonne/year Ethylene
Jurong Island Source of picture: www.pcs.com.sg By John Richardson SINGAPORE plans to eventually raise its ethylene capacity to 6-8m tonne/year from the 4m tonne/year which will be reached when ExxonMobil’s second cracker complex at Jurong Island is on-stream, Liang Ting Wee, Director of Energy and Chemicals at the Economic Development Board (EDB), has told […]
Qatar Petroleum, ExxonMobil Delay Qatar Cracker
By John Richardson Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil have delayed the start-up of their 1.6m tonne/year cracker and derivatives project in Qatar, my colleague Anna Jagger reported on ICIS news yesterday – quoting sources familiar with the project. This confirms an earlier media report to this effect – and adds the extra details that start-up of […]
Report: ExxonMobil Qatar Project In Doubt
Up In The Air? Source of picture: www.marcdussault.com.blog By John Richardson QATAR Petroluem and ExxonMobil have started talks to dissolve their partnership for a 1.6m tonne/year cracker project in Qatar, according to an article published earlier this week by the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED). The project, due for start-up in 2015, would have […]
Asia Resurgent On Refinery Integration
Source of picture: omniglobal.com By John Richardson A FASCINATING theme to emerge from last week’s Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC) in Mumbai was a growing belief in refinery integration in Asia as a means of being able to compete with the Middle East. Reliance Industries is planning a giant cracker complex based largely, […]
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