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Asian Chemical Connections

Benefits, Risks Of Petronas/Aramco Deals Serving As Template

By John Richardson THE PETRONAS and Saudi Aramco joint ventures in the RAPID refining-to-petrochemicals project in Malaysia may serve as a template for further “win/win deals”. Whilst these deals will substantially benefit the companies and countries involved, there are broader risks that I’ll discuss at the end of this blog post. Back in February, Aramco […]

Beware Of Oil-Price Rally: Nothing To Do With Fundamentals

By John Richardson PEOPLE are once again at risk of dangerously over-exposing themselves to a further collapse in oil prices following yesterday’s increase to the highest levels since November 2015. The obvious risk  is that there will be stock building up and down all the petrochemicals values chains, only for oil to once again decline […]

Oil Prices 80% Likely Not To Return To Previous Levels

By John Richardson In yesterday’s world the ongoing geopolitical tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran would have resulted in a sustained rally in oil prices. But this rally lasted barely couple of days as a result of persistently high US oil stocks and more alarming data emerging from China, such as the biggest-ever decline in […]

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 […]

Pump Oil Hard Now Or Live To Regret Production Cuts

By John Richardson OIL producers face a very straightforward choice: Pump crude as hard as possible right now or run the risk of your most important economic asset being left in the ground for good. One of the reasons is that, regardless of what you might think about the science behind claims that burning fossil […]

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