Picture: US shale gas worker Source: Image Broker/Rex Features By John Richardson SHALE-GAS exploration in northern Saudi Arabia shows tremendous promise, said an industry observer on the sidelines of last week’s seventh Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) conference in Dubai. “The main purpose of the Saudi Aramco project is to generate methane for […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Indonesia’s “Great Moderation”
Graph prepared by The Economist By John Richardson INDONESIA has enjoyed eight consecutive quarters of 6% GDP growth and so – along with several other mainly domestically-demand driven Asian economies – is viewed as a haven of stability in an increasingly uncertain world. The country’s 2012 demand growth for polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) […]
US Oil: Nothing Is Uncertain As Certainty
By John Richardson ALL of yesterday’s excitement about the US overtaking Saudi Arabia and Russia by 2017 to become the world’s biggest oil producer – and exceeding Russia to become the world’s biggest gas producer by 2015 – needs to be taken with a very large pinch of salt. The release of the International Energy […]
The US Shale Gas Boom Will End
Don’t follow the herd… By John Richardson ISN’T it amazing how we keep getting caught out by the unexpected, from the global financial crisis to China is entering a period of much-lower growth? No, not really. As long as we keep being driven by the short attention-span of financial markets and the demands of quarterly […]
World Heading For L-Shaped Recovery
Mr Bernanke, please take note By John Richardson The recovery is always six months away and so while most people have written-off the first half of next year, the hope is that by H2 everything will be back to normal. But as fellow blogger Paul Hodges points out in this video, which he further underlines […]
US Set To Adopt A Golden Rule
By John Richardson ONE of the golden rules of petrochemicals is “always run hard if you have the feedstock advantage”. As a result, the US is said to have been a little frustrated by a series of operating problems that have constrained their average capacity utilisation to around 80% in 2012. “If they had been able to they would […]
Saudi Aramco, Dow, Shell, IEA To Speak At Berlin Conference
Next month’s World Aromatics conference is a must-attend event for anyone involved with the industry. It features an impressive line-up of major players, including Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, as well as Dow, Shell and the International Energy Agency. Jointly organised with ICIS, it takes place on 13 – 14 November: Saudi Aramco […]
Morgan Stanley Turns Bearish
By John Richardson AN interesting new report from Morgan Stanley underlines what we have been hearing about Chinese chemicals demand. The investment bank writes: “We returned to China and offer a revised message versus our trip last year. Instead of a ‘pause” in growth’, we now see a structural slowdown. China is in the midst […]
Rising Labour Costs Threaten US Projects
By John Richardson RISING labour costs will impact the viability of US petrochemicals projects as a result of the surge in overall hydrocarbons construction activity, an industry source told the blog. “Unless companies lock-in their labour costs fairly quickly, before the big surge in activity ahead of numerous cracker and derivatives start-ups planned for 216-2017, […]
Nova Chems Company Of The Year
By Nigel Davis The ICIS Company of the year award goes to NOVA Chemicals, a company that has risen phoenix-like from near bankruptcy to produce a healthy set of financial results in 2011. Underlying its performance is the backing of a strong investor – the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) – canny management […]
Jump to page: