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Asian Chemical Connections

Why Oil Prices Could Be At $35/bbl Or Lower By Q4

Saudi Arabia and the rest of OPEC may regret their decison to cut production, as this has led to a resurgence in US shale-oil production – and a further wave of innovation in shale technologies. Combine this with a slowdown in the Chinese economy and oil prices could be at $35/bbl or less by Q4 […]

Oil Prices: When The Facts Don’t Matter

By John Richardson HERE are first of all the facts from the latest International Energy Agency (IEA) report: OPEC production hit a record high in September of 33.64m bbl/day. Iraq produced more oil than ever, while Libya reopened oil ports. Further boosting global supply levels is the fact that production in non-OPEC member Russia hit […]

The OPEC “Deal”: What It Really Means

By John Richardson THE OPEC decision to cut oil production for the first time since 2008, if indeed it does amount to a real cut in production, could end up being self-defeating. As I discussed last month, US shale oil production efficiency continues to go quite literally through the roof of most forecasters expectations. Between […]

Saudi Arabia and Oil: A Lesson For Polypropylene

By John Richardson POLYPROPYLENE (PP) producers and their customers, the plastic converters, are on the cusp of a great opportunity. Let’s start with the producers. The potential for low-priced propylene for several years to come will push PP prices down, thus giving PP the chance to gain market share from other polymers such as polystyrene, […]

Five Misunderstandings About Oil And Maybe A Sixth One

By John Richardson THE first misunderstanding about oil prices, which everyone now accepts was wrong, arose because people took too much notice of existing cost-per-barrel economics and so assumed that from October of last year, the US would close down huge amounts of shale-oil capacity. This didn’t happen because a.) Costs were lower than anticipated […]

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