By Malini Hariharan The Thai government is doing all it can to quickly resolve the Map Ta Phut crisis but full operations at PTT Chem’s new cracker is likely only in early 2011. Feedstock ethane for the 1m tonnes/year cracker will be supplied from PTT’s No6 gas separation plant commissioning of which has been held […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Assessing Real Versus Sensationalised Risks
Source of picture: www.sierraclubgreenhome.com By John Richardson WHEN the bisphenol-A (BPA) health scare erupted a couple of years ago I rushed out and changed all my baby boy’s milk bottles to ones made from polypropylene (PP). “Did you know that there are concerns now being expressed in Europe about the plasticisers used in […]
Chemicals Growth Story Gets More Complicated
A Velozzi plug-in hybrid Source of picture: www.zerauto.nl.blog By John Richardson Doom-mongers are claiming the end is nigh with the world heading for a double-dip recession. This is happening at the same as the optimists are talking of the world entering a new sunny upland of sustained exceptionally strong emerging-market growth, which will more-than […]
The changing world of gas
By Malini Hariharan The blog has recently written about gas availability in the Middle East and upcoming changes to pricing which have big implications for the petrochemicals business. But the global gas market is seeing wider changes and these have been excellently summarised by The Economist. The key development has been the rise of shale […]
Thailand’s Map Ta Phut crisis – the NGO side of the story
By Malini Hariharan Penchom Saetang of Ecological Alert and Recovery – Thailand (Earth) is not a typical activist vociferously denouncing companies for their environmental misdeeds. She is soft spoken and rational in her criticism of the state of affairs at Map Ta Phut, Thailand’s premier industrial zone and a major petrochemicals hub. After spending over […]
Corrected:Asian Naphtha-Ethylene Spreads Touch 2007 Levels
We should have originally written ‘integrated low-density polyethylene (LDPE) in paragraphsix, but instead wrote linear-low density PE (LLDPE). It’s now been corrected and apologies for the error – we will be buying some better glasses (less of this “we” – it’s actually “me”!) By John Richardson The rise in ethylene prices to what ICIS pricing says is […]
China And The Cold Weather: Heating The Great Outdoors
Stop complaining – it’s actually colder inside! Source of picture: www.gulfnews.com By John Richardson As northern China shivers from the coldest temperatures in decades, one Western ex-pat based in the country vented his spleen on cultural impediments which cause huge energy wastage – and prevent everyone from keeping a little bit warmer. “My colleagues […]
The latest on Mab Ta Phut
By Malini Hariharan There is some good news for chemical companies affected by the Map Ta Phut crisis. The Thai cabinet will ask the Administrative Court to remove 19 projects from the list of 65 projects that had been ordered to stop work. PTT’s No 6 gas separation project and PTT Chemical’s phenol and polyethylene […]
Map Ta Phut work stops but no clarity on when crisis will be resolved.
By Malini Hariharan Companies executing projects at Map Ta Phut in Thailand have finally received a notice from the government to stop construction work. The notice comes after the Thai Supreme court’s ruling in early December to suspend 65 projects on environmental concerns. Mitsubishi Rayon has confirmed it has stopped work at its 90,000 tonnes/year […]
ExxonMobil Gas Buy Supports “Fuel Of The Future” Argument
By John Richardson ExxonMobil’s purchase of XTO Energy for US$41bn seems to support the widely-held view that natural gas is the fuel for the future. XTO specialises in the technology necessary to exploit shale gas and other hard-to-get-at unconventional gas reserves, including the large amounts of shale gas in the US – one of […]
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