Americas
Business Trends: Global petrochemical overview—Part 2
Part 1 of this series provided an overview on the present state of the petrochemical industry, a breakdown on construction project numbers by region, as well as major trends in Africa, the Middle East and the US. Part 2 examines the landscape in Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe and Latin America.
Global Project Data
According to <i>Hydrocarbon Processing’s</i> Construction Boxscore Database, nearly 300 new downstream projects have been announced around the globe over the past year.
People
Elliott Group has made changes to its executive team. Michael Lordi has been named as chief operating officer (COO), succeeding Art Titus, who is retiring after nine years.
Chemical companies see rosier results on low crude oil prices
Expectations for chemical sector earnings have been boosted by a combination of lower crude oil costs during the commodity's slump, along with strong demand for plastics.
Refining’s silver lining fades at Exxon, Chevron
Growing fuel inventories and weak demand are now hammering the refining industry, turning a typical advantage for integrated oil companies on its head.
Praxair to expand Louisiana carbon monoxide hub
The company will add a new, 13 million standard cubic feet/day carbon monoxide purification train at the site. Carbon monoxide is a raw material in the production of a range of specialty chemicals including those used to produce polyurethanes for the housing and auto industries.
Rare gasoline cargo heads from China to US
Asian gasoline stocks have risen sharply in recent months as traders and refiners betting on strong summer demand for the road fuel in China and other countries ramped up imports and production.
US refiner Marathon Petroleum sees lower profit on weak crack spreads
Refiners have seen their margins shrink due to the narrowing price difference between US crude and globally traded Brent futures, to which the price of refined products are tied.
PDVSA launches tenders as Venezuelan refineries face operating woes
While Amuay's fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) restarted on Monday, the 645,000-bpd refinery was operating at only around 360,000 bpd as its flexicoker remained down. Meanwhile, The adjacent 310,000 bpd Cardon facility was processing around 110,000 bpd.
Oil hits 2016 high as US gasoline margins soar
Crude markets got off to a rousing start in the New York session as gasoline futures and gasoline refinery margins both surged from refinery outages, Venezuela buying and a reported drop in inventories.
- Chiyoda, AVEVA forge strategic partnership to power plantOS with AVEVA CONNECT 6/27
- SABIC announces closure of Olefins 6 facility in Teesside, UK 6/27
- LyondellBasell's polyolefin technologies selected by SHCCIG Yulin for petrochemicals complex in China 6/27
- Damaged unit of Iran's South Pars refinery back operating 6/27
- hte conducts research for JGC to advance decarbonization by identifying suitable catalysts for ammonia cracking 6/26
- TES and CPC Finland to develop 500-MW e-NG project in Finland 6/26
