By John Richardson THE BALTIC DRY INDEX, one of the excellent barometers of overall economic activity, was late last week at its lowest level since June on a slowing Chinese economy, easing congestion at Chinese ports and a fall in Chinese coal imports (more on this in a moment). “The index was around 1,000 a […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Petrochemicals Destocking Phase Likely As Crude Volatility Increases
By John Richardson WE COULD now be in a destocking phase in petrochemicals markets as oil prices are falling on a surge in US production. This would obviously mean lower petrochemicals pricing, leaving companies that have overbuilt raw material inventories with substantial financial losses. I hope that most companies have been prudent. In January, the […]
Demographics And Shale Gas
By John Richardson GLOBAL shale resources are large enough to cover more than a decade of oil consumption, writes the FT in this article, quoting the US Department of Energy. And as my colleague Nigel Davis writes in this, as usual, excellent Insight article, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has upwardly revised its estimate of worldwide recoverable […]
Multiple Energy Options In China
Source of table: The Economist By John Richardson WHEN you are an energy giant such as Shell you can afford to explore multiple avenues in an effort to profit from China’s long-term energy needs. Thus Shell re-affirmed last week that it plans to invest $1bn in a year in exploiting the country’s vast shale-gas […]
China’s Shale Gas Potential
By John Richardson THE shale-gas revolution, which, of course, is already well underway in the US, could also have major implications for petrochemicals in China. China has 1,275 trillion cubic feet of recoverable shale-gas reserves, according to the Energy Information Administration – more than the US. As a result, the Chinese National Energy Administration has […]