Oil prices pushed up on Iran fears

(bbc.co.uk) -- Improvements in the global economy and tensions in the Middle East have pushed up the price of oil. In mid-afternoon trading, Brent one-month futures were at $110.81 a barrel while US light crude traded at $102.02. Recent US employment data has been better than expected, suggesting increased demand from the world's largest consumer of oil.

And Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, is under pressure from the West over its nuclear programme. Iran produced 4,245,000 barrels of oil a day in 2010, according to BP's statistical review of world energy. On Friday last week, diplomats working at the Iranian embassy in London were expelled. They were ordered to leave by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague after protesters stormed the British embassy in Tehran on Tuesday.

Also last week, the US Senate voted to penalise financial institutions doing business with Iran's central bank, because of worries over the country's nuclear programme. And on Sunday, Iran's official Irna news agency reported it had shot down an unmanned US drone aircraft. The European Union is reportedly considering a ban on Iranian oil exports which may interrupt oil supply to the region.

MRC

(ICIS) -- US polypropylene (PP) producer Braskem America is looking at various options now that the feedstock supply for its Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, plant has been jeopardised, the company said on Monday. A 1 December announcement by Sunoco that it will immediately shut down the main processing units at its Marcus Hook refinery, more than seven months ahead of schedule, has created a "significant challenge" for Braskem, according to PP market participants.


Sunoco, which sold the Marcus Hook PP plant to Braskem in April 2010, provided it with a significant percentage of the propylene it needs to make PP at the Marcus Hook facility, sources said.
A Braskem spokesman declined to respond to specific questions about the situation, but said the company "is going to pursue both short- and long-term options to continue to operate our Marcus Hook polypropylene plant, including the use of all legal actions and remedies available". Sunoco spokesman Joe McGinn declined to comment beyond saying that Sunoco is "working closely with Braskem on the situation".

Braskem, which in October completed the purchase of two PP plants in Texas at Freeport and Seadrift from US-based Dow Chemical, has a total US PP capacity of 1.4m tonnes/year, making it the nation's largest PP producer. The company said would use its "global asset base, including the assets recently acquired from Dow" to minimise the impact of Sunoco's actions on its customers.

In an August interview, Braskem America CEO Luiz de Mendonca said the company is seeking other sources of propylene in the US, adding that by becoming the largest user of merchant propylene in the US, the company will have a lot of leverage.

But in the short term, Robert Bauman, president of Polymer Consulting International, said there is not a lot of spare propylene to be found in that region of the US, adding that there are no pipelines that can easily transport the feedstock to the Braskem plant.


MRC

(ICIS) -- A stretch of the River Rhine was reopened on Monday after two bombs from the Second World War, found near the German city of Koblenz, were successfully defused on Sunday, river authority Wasser- und Schifffahrtsamt Bingen said.

The 1.8 tonne and 125kg bombs, which were discovered in a riverbed after water levels fell significantly because of dry weather, prompted the closure of a 60km (38 mile) stretch of the Rhine between Bingen and Koblenz, adding further to logistical problems.

The bomb disposal had triggered the evacuation of 45,000 from the city of Koblenz, almost half the city's population.
The low water levels on the Rhine are currently limiting transport and damaging demand in some European refined product barge markets, as well as driving up logistical costs for shippers of chemicals and other commodities.

However, the river's water level has recently risen slightly thanks to some rainfall over the weekend.
The Rhine is an important European shipping route for chemicals and other commodities, including minerals, coal and oil products.

MRC

(BASF) -- BASF has signed a long-term agreement with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to lease laboratory and office space at the Australian Minerals Research Centre in Perth. Starting in January 2012, BASF will build a global R&D and technology centre, employing six researchers and developers by the end of 2012.


In first projects, scientists will be studying mineral processing specific innovation needs such as advanced rheology modifiers for the improvement of the thickening process for valuables and tailings or modification of the crystallization process in alumina production.

BASF also agreed to sponsor research undertaken by the Parker Centre starting from July 2012. For five years, BASF will make a substantial financial contribution to participate in collaborative research in the areas of breakthrough technologies and process fundamentals primarily focused on alumina, base metals (particularly cobalt, copper, nickel and zinc), gold and uranium.


The Parker Centre is a collaborative research organization focused on hydrometallurgy R&D, involving three research institutions (CSIRO, Curtin University and Murdoch University) and strongly supported by 20 mineral processing companies.

With the participation at the Parker Centre in Perth and the agreement with CSIRO, BASF intends to strengthen its R&D capabilities in proximity to industrial research centers and key customers. This creates the opportunity to connect BASF technologies and research and development platforms with opinion leaders in academia and industry and thereby jointly address new developments for mineral processing. ⌠Our research will greatly benefit from the intellectual property generated from the Parker Centre and from our interactions with the participant research groups, explained Gregor Brodt, Global Development, Oilfield and Mining Chemicals.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Spot prices of monopropylene glycol (MPG) in Asia are expected to be stable, with a downside bias, as producers unload inventory amid uncertainty in the global economic outlook, market sources said on Monday. ⌠Everybody wants to keep low stocks these days, said a Malaysian buyer.

On 2 December, MPG industrial grade (PGI) bulk cargoes were assessed at $1,700-1,730/tonne (┬1,275-1,298/tonne) CFR (cost and freight) northeast (NE)/southeast (SE) Asia, unchanged from last week, according to ICIS data.

For MPG pharmaceutical grade (PG USP) drummed cargoes, prices were assessed at $1,900-1,930/tonne CFR NE Asia and $1,920-1,940/tonne CFR SE Asia in the week ended 2 December, according to data from ICIS. Producers tend to maintain low inventory levels towards the end of the year to reflect better profits in their accounting books, a PG USP maker said.

MPG's downstream sectors, including the unsaturated polyester resins (UPR) industry, are mostly procuring cargoes on a hand-to-mouth basis to control and keep levels of finished goods low, market sources said. Concerns about global demand amid the eurozone debt crisis, a weak US economy and a slowing down of China's growth have been keeping market players in the MPG markets sidelined.

A major US -based MPG producer, meanwhile, experienced a 20% month-on-month decline in sales over the same period. The producer is considering cutting its PGI bulk offers by $30/tonne in December to about $1,700-1,730/tonne CFR NE/SE Asia, market sources said. UPR is used in products like sink, pipes and water tanks.

For PG USP, demand has been mainly stable throughout the year. PG USP is used in the food and additives, pharmaceutical and personal care sectors. Offers for PGI from Singapore were slightly below $1,700/tonne CFR SE Asia, said the northeast Asian producer.

MRC