Deepwater disaster expected to impact shale gas Source of picture: Minnpost.com By John Richardson THE booming shale-gas industry could either benefit or suffer from the BP Gulf of Mexico oil-well disaster, with the end-result determined by the effect on energy prices of any long-term clampdown on deepwater and Arctic drilling. Those for and […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Being Miserable As A Profession
Never look on the bright side of life… Source of picture: thescratchingshed.com By John Richardson – fresh back from a long break in Europe (more on this later). “If you keep predicting a catastrophe, John, you will eventually be proved right,” a senior executive from a major Asian petrochemicals producer told me in mid-2007. At […]
PTT merger delayed yet again and Map Ta Phut tops new minister’s agenda
By Malini Hariharan A merger of PTT Aromatics and Refinery (PTTAR) and IRPC has once again been postponed to early next year due to concerns about legal issues and the business outlook, reports to Bangkok Post. The legal concerns relate to the country’s competition law and outstanding lawsuits filed by Prachai Leophairatana, the founder of […]
Plans for one more cracker at Jubail
By Malini Hariharan A few weeks back the blog had reported that Total was interested in producing more petrochemicals downstream of its refinery joint venture with Saudi Aramco at Al Jubail in Saudi Arabia. And yesterday, Michel Govaerts, general manager of business development for Middle East and Asia at Total Petrochemicals, confirmed that the company […]
China flexes its muscles
By Malini Hariharan If you are trying to find an explanation for the recent price movement in Asian polyolefin markets, a report in today’s Wall Street Journal offers some clues. China, says the report, has been eating into some of its reserves resulting in a decline in prices of commodities such as refined copper, iron […]
Old Assumptions Might Belatedly Change
Source of picture: http://www.andrewgriffithsblog.com/ By John Richardson DOOM-MONGERS are scratching their heads as to why the global petrochemicals industry has remained in such a healthy state over the past 18 months. Old assumptions are, as a result, being challenged. It would be a painful irony if these assumptions are changed just as a […]
Sinopec and Iran’s NPC Sign Investment MOU
Out of the investment deep-freeze? Source: tehrandaily.wordpress.com By John Richardson A VERY interesting story from my colleague Bee Lin Chow on ICIS news today reports the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Sinopec and Iran’s National Petrochemical Co (NPC). The agreement will explore joint- venture opportunities in petrochemicals and related businesses in […]
End-users Acting As Traders Influence China PE Price Correction
By John Richardson LAST week’s sharp decline in polyethylene (PE) pricing in China is being partly blamed on converters who occasionally act as traders liquidating their raw-material inventories. Trading activity by end-users can account for more than 10% of total sales activity in the Chinese market in any one week, the blog has previously been […]
Financial Sector Fear Looms Large
By John Richardson WE will explore the following issues in a lot more detail over the coming days, assuming that the crude and financial market turmoil continues. But for now here follows the interpretation of the crisis from a source with a major polyethylene (PE) producer. The themes are consistent with what we have been picking up […]
Chemicals Face More Financial Sector Damage
Greed definitely not good for chemicals…. Source of picture: reelmovienews.com By John Richardson THE chemicals industry is once again confronting the risk of being badly damaged by the ever-more interconnected oil, other hard commodity, currency and equity markets. As fellow blogger Paul Hodges told us last November: “Demand visibility – even without as yet […]
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