Opec to study shale impact

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Opec is to carry out its own investigation into the impact of global shale resource discoveries and exploitation on long-term prospects for conventional oil and gas, said Upstreamonline.

Meeting in Vienna on Friday, where leaders agreed to maintain the cartel’s current target production rate, Opec said it was receiving too much conflicting external information on the impact of unconventional oil and gas on the industry.

"It is a new supply, a new liquid, and the ministers would like to know the magnitude of this supply, how long it will last - the sutainability, the cost. So we will follow it up," the news wire quoted Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri as saying.

"We're going to follow it up because there are differences in the information we are receiving. We are not receiving accurate information, we have to do it ourselves."

The news wire said the 12-member organisation has set up a committee to look into the issue.

Nigerian Oil Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke said at the same meeting: "It the shale boom is a concern, but we also respect the sovereignty and integrity of any country to provide self sustainability in terms of their oil and gas or hydrocarbon needs."

The Wall Street Journal quoted Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi, however, as being comparatively nonplussed by the shale gale, saying: "The market is in an excellent condition, the demand and supply are good, the inventories are good".

"Why are you all excited all of a sudden on shale? You know why, because you [the journalist] like to chit chat…you are an agent of disturbance. Leave us alone and leave all these issues. We had enough of shale oil and talks of shale. Please talk about anything else."

The growth in U.S. shale-gas exploration and production has lowered domestic gas prices and enables producers there to use gas as feedstock. That has put pressure on petrochemical producers in Saudi Arabia who get gas for a government- subsidized price of USD0.75 per million British thermal units.

As MRC wrote before, Saudi Arabia intends to remain a world energy powerhouse for the foreseeable future, partly by exploiting new technology which has unlocked vast quantities of oil and natural gas in North America. Saudi Arabia will push ahead this year with exploratory drilling of shale and other unconventional gas reserves which could be twice the size of its conventional gas reserves, which total 286 trillion cubic feet. Exploiting unconventional and renewable energy will allow Saudi Arabia to meet rising domestic demand while maintaining crude-oil exports, add Mr. al-Naimi.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The technology company Linde Group will invest more than USD 200 million to build a large, state-of-the-art air separation unit (ASU), a new gasification train and supporting equipment and facilities in La Porte, Texas, said Linde.

The new plants are scheduled to come on-stream in the course of 2015.

The ASU will be the largest operated by Linde in the U.S. and the addition of a new gasification plant will create the world's largest natural gas based partial oxidation complex for the production of syngas products for petrochemicals. With the new plants, Linde will have a fully integrated presence in the Houston area that covers air gases and synthesis gas products production and supply to its customers.

The air gases (oxygen and nitrogen) produced by the new ASU will supply the gasification assets at the La Porte site. The new gasifier will convert natural gas into syngas and constituent products such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen and carbon dioxide which are used to produce methanol, downstream chemicals and cleaner transportation fuels. In this way Linde will supply syngas products including pipeline delivery to a key customer. Linde also owns and operates three additional large, partial oxidation facilities that manufacture syngas products using Linde's world-leading syngas processing technologies and know-how.

As MRC wrote before, Linde Group has formed a joint venture with chemical company JSC KuibyshevAzot to build and operate a large ammonia plant at the Togliatti site in Russia's Samara region.

The Linde Group is a world-leading gases and engineering company with around 62,000 employees in more than 100 countries worldwide. In the 2012 financial year, Linde generated revenue of EUR 15.280 bn. The strategy of the Group is geared towards long-term profitable growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Revenue in the global basic petrochemicals industry is estimated to reach US$821.8 billion in 2018 with good growth over the next five years (2013-2018), said Plastemart.

Lower feedstock cost advantage and end-user segment market demand are the main drivers of the industry. Technological evolution and emerging applications of chemicals in various areas drives the demand.

Global basic petrochemicals consist of basic building blocks of chemicals such as olefins, aromatics, and synthesis gas. The industry is capital intensive and fragmented as there are large numbers of players worldwide. As per the study, growing demand from end-user markets such as automotive, construction, chemicals base products, consumer durables, and non-durable products will drive demand over the forecast period.

Asia Pacific (APAC) and North America are forecast to witness the highest growth over the next five years. Increasing population ratio in the APAC region drives the demand of consumer durables products such as food and packaging materials. Both APAC and the Middle East are key areas in the production of basic petrochemicals as they have reserves of crude oil and natural gas, which increases the self-dependency on the raw materials for manufacturing.

North America is anticipated to have great opportunity in the future market due to the discovery of shale gas resources. The US has a more economical feedstock to produce lighter hydrocarbon chain as compared to naphtha-based produced ethane.

As MRC informed before, Dow Chemical, Formosa Plastics, and Chevron Phillips Chemical have recently unveiled their expansion plans in North America. It"s only been a few short years since the energy industry began tapping deposits in the Marcellus Shale Formation in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, but natural gas reserves in the USA have already increased by almost 30% and chemical suppliers are rushing to exploit this new wellspring.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Exxon Mobil said it still expects to be able to meet contractual commitments while work to normalize operations at its Torrance refinery in California continues, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The 150,000 bpd refinery was hit by an external power disruption that resulted in unplanned flaring. The incident didn't cause injuries to Exxon Mobil employees or contractors, company spokeswoman Gesuina Paras.

All non-essential personnel were evacuated as a safety precaution, and the Torrance Fire Department was on-site to work with Exxon Mobil personnel to safely manage the incident, Ms. Paras added.

"There is no impact to production," Ms. Paras said.

The company in early May said the refinery would conduct "several weeks" of planned maintenance at several process units. In mid May Exxon Mobil said the turnaround maintenance would be performed on a crude distillation unit, a coker unit, one of the plant's hydrogen units, a sulfur recover unit, and an alkylation unit. It hasn't commented on more recent reports of unit start ups, however.

As MRC informed previously, ExxonMobil said on Thursday it had started ethylene production at a new chemical unit in Singapore after expansion. With the start-up of the steam cracker, the company will increase production at other petrochemical units in the Singapore complex over the next few weeks. Ethylene is a feedstock for producing polymers (PE and PP) used in plastics production.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3 percent of the world's oil and about 2 percent of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- KraussMaffei Group GmbH, German machinery producers, started production of MX injection moulding machines at the company's plant in Haiyan, China, in the first quarter of 2013, reported the company on its site.

The first Chinese-assembled MX 850-6100 from the Haiyan production plant was delivered to a long-standing Chinese customer and went into operation shortly afterwards.

"Delivery of the locally produced MX marks a new chapter in the ten-year success story of KraussMaffei in China," emphasized Harald Schweitzer, Head of the KraussMaffei Group subsidiary in China, adding, "We look forward to further extending our product line with the assembly at our Chinese plant of the popular MX machines, which have been well received by the market."

Plant extension work is nearing completion. Extrusion and reaction process machinery products have been in production at Haiyan, near Shanghai, for several years already.

In addition to the hydraulic MX machines, which are largely aimed at the automotive sector, the company also is setting up a lab and training center for PET equipment, related to KM's Netstal business.

As MRC wrote previously, two leading pipe manufacturers from Russia have recently chosen KraussMaffei Berstorff as a systems supplier for premium-quality technology and invested in PO pipe extrusion systems. Isoljazionny Trubny Zawod (ITZ) is seeking to enter into a long-term partnership with KraussMaffei Berstorff. Polyplastic Group is already a satisfied KraussMaffei Berstorff customer and, consequently, has placed a follow-up order.

The KraussMaffei Group is a global leader in the plastics and rubber processing industries. The company covers all areas of injection molding machinery, extrusion technology and reaction process machinery, which gives it a unique selling point in the industry.
MRC