Business Intelligence and Analytics 12

Friday, April 12, 2019

Business Intelligence and Analytics 12

1              What CEOs Can Learn from Roman Emperors
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/what-ceos-can-learn-from-roman-emperors/

The Roman Empire has fascinated history buffs for centuries with its stories of political ambition, military victories and corruption. But the Romans were also known for their efficiency, feats of engineering and deft management of far-flung communities. Today’s business leaders can learn valuable lessons by looking at how they built and ran a vast empire.

2              Designing The Customer Experience for Marketers
https://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/designing-the-customer-experience-for-marketers-02189140

Gartner reports from 2018 that 52% of marketers with CX responsibility expect their budgets to remain the same or decrease. However, expectations with the importance of CX is continuing to grow.

3              How to perfectly balance affiliate marketing and SEO Search Engine Watch
https://searchenginewatch.com/2019/04/11/how-to-perfectly-balance-affiliate-marketing-and-seo/

In all my years as an SEO consultant, I can’t begin to count the number of times I saw clients who were struggling to make both SEO and affiliate marketing work for them.

4              A Day in the Life of a Marketing Analytics Professional
https://towardsdatascience.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-marketing-analytics-professional-83dd45f2e702

Marketing Analytics is a multifaceted but often misunderstood practice. Here’s an example day to highlight the diversity of the role.

Marketing Analytics is often the foundation of any world-class Marketing program. But conferences, interviews and meetings have taught me that very few people understand the world of Marketing Analytics.

5              7 Technical Concept Every Data Science Beginner Should Know
https://dimensionless.in/7-technical-concept-every-data-science-beginner-should-know/

So you want to learn data science but you don’t know where to start? Or you are a beginner and you want to learn the basic concepts? Welcome to your new career and your new life!

6              How to get international insights from Google Analytics
https://searchenginewatch.com/2019/04/10/how-to-get-international-insights-from-google-analytics/

Your international marketing campaigns hinge on one crucial element: how well you have understood your audience.

As with all marketing, insight into the user behavior, preferences and needs of your market is a must. However, if you do not have feet on the ground in these markets, you may be struggling to understand why your campaigns are not hitting the mark.

7              Getting The Cart Before The Horse, Sales Automation
https://www.business2community.com/sales-management/getting-the-cart-before-the-horse-sales-automation-02187667

Technology and automation can enable each of us to be much more efficient, and sometimes more impactful/effective. In our company, we couldn’t achieve what we do without our technology stack. In some ways, it’s an appendage we couldn’t manage to live without.

8              5 Common Inventory Management Mistakes — And How to Solve Them
https://www.manufacturing.net/article/2019/04/5-common-inventory-management-mistakes-and-how-solve-them

For businesses in the fast-changing food and beverage industry, finding the perfect inventory levels to avoid surplus and stockouts is a common yet elusive goal. Food wholesalers continue to feel evolving pressure from e-commerce and omnichannel

9              Why a data scientist is not a data engineer
https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/why-a-data-scientist-is-not-a-data-engineer

A few months ago, I wrote about the differences between data engineers and data scientists. I talked about their skills and common starting points.

10           6 Digitization Trends Coming From AI and Blockchain
https://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/digital-business/6-digitization-trends-coming-from-ai-and-blockchain/a/d-id/1334369

Blockchain and artificial intelligence are two emerging technologies that are quickly bringing about further digitization in the business world. Here are six ways they are changing how businesses operate and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. (Predictions drawn from online sources, including IBM, LogChain, and the American Bankers Association.)

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 12

Friday, April 12, 2019

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 12

1              Goldman: Oil Prices Won’t Reach $80
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Goldman-Oil-Prices-Wont-Reach-80.html

Oil prices soared in recent days, with Brent rising to its highest point since early November. The tightness in the market is real, but prices may not increase a whole lot more from here. “We don’t think you’re going to get back to those $80 levels again, so you’ve got some modest upside here,” Goldman Sachs’ head of commodities research, Jeff Currie, told CNBC this week.

2              Chevron Buys Anadarko
https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/chevron_buys_anadarko-12-apr-2019-158589-article/

Chevron Corp. agreed to buy Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in a $33 billion bet on shale oil and liquefied natural gas. Chevron will acquire all outstanding shares in Anadarko for $65 each, paying with a mixture of cash and its own stock. That’s a premium of 39 percent to the closing price on Thursday. Anadarko’s shares soared to $62 in pre-market trading.

3              Turn around a stalled oil and gas digital transformation
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/oil-and-gas/our-insights/rebooting-your-stalled-digital-transformation-in-oil-and-gas

Does this sound like your company? You’ve been investing in digital and advanced-analytics solutions for at least two or three years. You’ve set priorities, given them plenty of leadership attention, and hired new talent to build your organization’s capabilities. You’ve invested in new technologies, software solutions, and external support to make sure you’re on the right path. In short, you’ve done everything you can to make your digital transformation a success. Yet you can’t help feeling that it is stalling.

4              The Next Geopolitical Flashpoint For Oil
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Next-Geopolitical-Flashpoint-For-Oil.html

From a Western point of view, the removal of president Bashir of Sudan, after several weeks of mass protests in Khartoum and other cities, is in line with the exit of Algeria’s long-time leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Optimism in the press, especially in the West, over both developments seem to be based on emotions and not on facts. As the Arab Spring has shown, don’t ever count out the existing power structures of the respective regimes, and specifically the armed forces. The Egyptian revolution was the first example, shortly after the ‘democratic revolution’ the military took over and reinstated the status quo.

5              Exclusive: Arrival of Putin’s judo partner squeezed Shell out of LNG project
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gazprom-shell-exit-exclusive-idUSKCN1RN2K5

Royal Dutch Shell pulled out of a project to build a Russian liquefied natural gas plant partly because Gazprom suddenly added another partner with links to an ally of President Vladimir Putin, according to five sources.

6              LNG Canada makes CEO swap
https://www.lngworldnews.com/lng-canada-makes-ceo-swap/

LNG Canada said that its current CEO Andy Calitz is to leave his post and will be replaced by the incoming CEO Peter Zebedee, with effect on July 1, 2019.

7              Why Amazon Is Suddenly Courting Big Oil
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Why-Amazon-Is-Suddenly-Courting-Big-Oil.html

For years, Big Tech has been a vocal advocate of powering their data centers with renewable energy, while the multi-billionaire founders of companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook have teamed up to invest in new technologies for cheaper energy in an emission-free future.

8              Venezuela oil output plummets to 870,000 bpd on outages, sanctions: IEA
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iea-oil-idUSKCN1RN0QY

Global oil supply dropped in March as U.S. sanctions and power outages pushed Venezuela’s crude output to a long-term low of 870,000 barrels per day (bpd), the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, even lower than OPEC reported the day before.

9              Smart Money Is Piling Into Oil
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Smart-Money-Is-Piling-Into-Oil.html

Oil prices jumped to five-month highs this week, pushed higher by a bullish cocktail of supply outages, geopolitical unrest and a sputtering shale sector.

10           ‘Climate before cash’: young Norwegians call time on oil industry
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-oil-insight-idUSKCN1RO0L1

When Norway’s largest political party decided that the Lofoten Islands in the north should not be opened up to oil exploration, a chill ran down the spine of the energy industry.

Business Intelligence and Analytics 11

Friday, April 5, 2019

Business Intelligence and Analytics 11

1              Understanding Your Customer’s Decision Journey
https://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/understanding-your-customers-decision-journey-02184554

It’s falsely comforting to think of selling as a process in which one step follows logically after another. But although rigidly defined processes might be the best way of running a manufacturing production line, they completely fail to reflect the reality of any moderately complicated sales environment.

2              13 Email Marketing Statistics That Are Shaping 2019 and Beyond
https://www.convinceandconvert.com/digital-marketing/email-marketing-statistics/

The following email marketing statistics prove how you can use email to reach your marketing goals in 2019 and beyond.

3              The Basics of a Content Marketing Funnel
https://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/the-basics-of-a-content-marketing-funnel-02184200

If you’ve spent ANY time in online marketing circles, you’ve heard of a marketing “funnel.” But most online marketing funnels aren’t like the funnel you might use to pour water into a jug or glitter into a little jar. For a funnel to work in real life, it has to be solid — but online marketing funnels are full of holes!

4              6 Ways Businesses Can Incorporate AI Into Their Products
https://opendatascience.com/6-ways-businesses-can-incorporate-ai-into-their-products/

The buzz over AI is loud in business, but don’t jump on the bandwagon just yet. You need a thoughtful plan of action to avoid what those of us in education know as “tech fatigue,” or the implementation of tech initiatives with no real goal for ROI. Launching blindly can leave you with an expensive tool, collecting metaphorical dust on your registers.

5              Top Email Marketing Software in 2019
http://www.xverify.com/blog/top-email-marketing-software-2019/

Here’s the thing about Email Marketing. It flat out works. Yes, even more so in 2019. In fact, for every $1 you spend on Email Marketing, you can expect to get a return of $38 on average!

6              Why You Need to Include Email in Your Omnichannel Strategy
https://www.business2community.com/email-marketing/why-you-need-to-include-email-in-your-omnichannel-strategy-02184448

Digital communication has become the most commonly used and relevant form of communicating today. Instant gratification is now the norm and our smartphones are never far from our sides. As a marketer, you have to go the extra mile to capture your customer’s heart, mind, and share of their wallet (of course). In order to do so, and successfully, you need to break through the communication clutter. But how?

7              17 Amazing Things You Can Do With Machine Learning in Python
https://medium.com/dataflair/17-amazing-things-you-can-do-with-machine-learning-in-python-2d3d474d0d6e

Why Python for Machine Learning Used? Before we proceed to the applications of Machine Learning with Python, you’re probably asking yourself- why Python? Among tools like R programming and SAS, here’s why we’ll go with Python-

8              5 Account Based Marketing Tactics From the Pros
https://www.business2community.com/marketing/beyond-the-basics-5-account-based-marketing-tactics-from-the-pros-02184427

We’re finally reaching an era when Account Based Marketing has found its footing, and Sales and Marketing teams are more open to making the transition from traditional marketing methods to ABM.

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 11

Friday, April 5, 2019

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 11

Greetings from Toronto.

1              The World’s Cheapest Natural Gas
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Gas-Prices/The-Worlds-Cheapest-Natural-Gas.html

Natural gas prices fell into record negative territory in the Permian basin, dragged down by booming oil production and a limited ability to move gas out of the region.

2              Tokyo Gas, Shell sign LNG deal linked to coal pricing in rare move
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lng-tokyo-gas-shell-idUSKCN1RH0UB

Japan’s Tokyo Gas said on Friday it has signed a deal with Royal Dutch Shell for the long-term supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG), partly using a coal-linked pricing formula in an unusual move for an Asian LNG buyer.

3              U.S. LNG to China will increase despite trade tension: Cheniere
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shanghai-lng-conference-cheniere-idUSKCN1RG100

Shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States to China will increase over the long term despite ongoing trade tensions, senior executives of Cheniere Energy, the biggest U.S. exporter of the super-chilled fuel, told Reuters.

4              Can the Mexican Government’s Bailout Solve the Pemex Crisis?
https://www.rigzone.com/news/can_the_mexican_governments_bailout_solve_the_pemex_crisis-02-apr-2019-158501-article/

In response to Fitch Group’s & Moody’s downgrade of Pemex’s credit rating to one notch above junk, Mexico’s government recently pledged a $3.9-billion capital injection and $200 million in tax relief, according to international media reports. This bailout package and the six-year business plan aims to help reverse Pemex’s credit downgrade, help control its USD $106 billion debt, boost cash flow, and increase crude production.

5              Mexico’s reliance on US gas pushes politicians to consider fracking
https://blogs.platts.com/2019/04/03/mexico-us-gas-fracking/

So what is all the fuss about? Saying no to fracking will mean leaving more than half of Mexico’s total natural gas reserves in the ground. This could be risky for Mexico, since the country’s natural gas production has fallen dramatically in recent years, descending to 2.6-2.7 Bcf/d in 2018 from a historical high of 5.1 Bcf/d in 2010, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics.

6              Pemex Is Too Big to Fail and Investors Are Finally Catching On
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-02/pemex-is-too-big-to-fail-and-investors-are-finally-catching-on

True believers in Petroleos Mexicanos are fueling a rally in its bonds, reckoning that government support for the beleaguered state-owned company will ultimately provide a backstop from any troubles.

7              PureCycle partners with Milliken, Nestlé to accelerate plastics recycling
https://www.plasticstoday.com/sustainability/purecycle-partners-milliken-nestl-accelerate-plastics-recycling/126068609060578

PureCycle Technologies has partnered with plastic additives manufacturer Milliken & Company, and food and beverage giant Nestlé S.A., as it moves forward with plans to open its first plant to restore post-consumer polypropylene (PP) plastic to ‘virgin-like’ quality with a revolutionary recycling method.

8              The Permian Basin Is Now The World’s Top Oil Producer
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2019/04/05/the-permian-basin-is-now-the-worlds-top-oil-producer/

Last week Saudi Aramco — the national oil company of Saudi Arabia and the world’s largest oil company — lifted a veil of secrecy around the company’s operations. For the first time in decades, operational details for Saudi Aramco were revealed in a bond offering.

9              Aramco Reveals Steep Output Dip at Super-Giant Oil Field
https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/aramco_reveals_steep_output_dip_at_supergiant_oil_field-03-apr-2019-158513-article/

Now the market finally knows: Ghawar in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest conventional oil field, can produce a lot less than almost anyone believed.

10           The Canadian Natural Gas Industry Really Needs LNG
https://www.forbes.com/sites/judeclemente/2019/04/05/the-canadian-natural-gas-industry-really-needs-lng/

This is a bit surprising since Canada enjoys many of the same advantages that the U.S. shale revolution does (U.S. gas output has risen 55% since 2008). Among other benefits, Canada has: 1) a huge shale gas resource, 2) leading oil/gas companies and experts, and 3) free market competition that helps ensure that “the best teams win.”

11           Value of U.S. oil deals plunges 93 percent in first quarter as investors demand higher returns
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shale-m-a-idUSKCN1RG2H3

The value of U.S. oil and gas mergers and acquisitions fell to a 10-year low in the first quarter, according to data released on Thursday, as investors pushed shale producers that have driven a recent merger boom to focus on lifting shareholder returns rather than production.

Business Intelligence and Analytics 10

Friday, March 29, 2019

Business Intelligence and Analytics 10

1              Unlocking Value From Data Is Key To A Successful Digital Transformation
https://www.forbes.com/sites/markvenables/2019/03/28/unlocking-value-from-data-is-key-to-a-successful-digital-transformation/

For oil and gas digital transformation is not a project where you make a roadmap and have a defined finish line, which, once crossed, constitutes a company being digitalized. Digitalization is achieved by implementing hundreds of use cases in a scalable manner.

2              Why the biggest and best struggle to grow
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/why-the-biggest-and-best-struggle-to-grow

The largest, most successful companies would seem to be ideally positioned to create value for their shareholders through growth. After all, they command leading market and channel positions in multiple industries and geographies; they employ deep benches of top management talent utilizing proven management processes; and they often have healthy balance sheets to fund the investments most likely to produce growth.

3              Explaining how AI works for non-coders and non-mathematicians: Introduction Part 1
https://medium.com/@nishul1/ai-for-the-rest-of-us-part-1-cfe1087918a5

There is a huge amounts of hype swirling around today about AI. There is also a huge amount of discussion about it’s impact on society today and in the future. Yet — I’ve seen very little material explaining well how an AI actually works. How is an AI built? What does it actually do inside the black box?

4              Explaining how AI works for non-coders and non-mathematicians: An Example Part 2
https://medium.com/@nishul1/ai-for-the-rest-of-us-part-2-4f3bd8ac58bd

This is part 2 of a post that is seeking to explain AI in a way anyone can understand it. Part 1 had some background and introduction. This post has an example hopefully anyone can follow!

5              Logistic Regression in One Picture
https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/logistic-regression-in-one-picture

Logistic regression is regressing data to a line (i.e. finding an average of sorts) so you can fit data to a particular equation and make predictions for your data. This type of regression is a good choice when modeling binary variables, which happen frequently in real life (e.g. work or don’t work, marry or don’t marry, buy a house or rent…). The logistic regression model is popular, in part, because it gives probabilities between 0 and 1.

6              3 Easy Use-cases – bitgrit Data Science Publication
https://medium.com/bitgrit-data-science-publication/from-0-to-ai-for-marketing-hero-3-easy-use-cases-dd8efbc14cbc

You’ve heard that AI is transforming marketing, but you may not know how to separate hype from real value. I’ll cover the 3 easiest, fastest, and most profitable AI use-cases to get started with. The main business metric in each of these is Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI).

7              The Deep Learning Toolset — An Overview
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2019/03/deep-learning-toolset-overview.html

Every problem worth solving needs great tools for support. Deep learning is no exception. If anything, it is a realm in which good tooling will become ever more important over the coming years.

8              Four steps for marketers to gain consumer trust | CMO Strategy
https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/steps-marketers-gain-consumer-trust/317158/

For brand marketers, the continuing challenges associated with privacy and data protection are not going away. As brands develop new policies and strategies, it’s critical to recognize the necessity of protecting the relationship with the brand’s consumer base.

9              AI in Digital Marketing — the bacon that just needs to be bought and eaten?
https://medium.com/@nele.dagefoerde/ai-in-digital-marketing-the-bacon-that-just-needs-to-be-bought-and-eaten-bec22616b009

Attending this week’s AI in Marketing conference in Zurich was not only inspiring for all the new things that are out there in Digital Marketing at the moment. Also, it showed the opportunities and challenges of today’s Digital Marketing.

10           Bias Variance Trade Off – Data Science Central
https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/bias-variance-trade-off

Deep Learning is a highly empirical domain which majorly focusses on fine-tuning the various parameters. The choice of these parameters defines the accuracy of the model. So, it becomes important to choose such parameters wisely.

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 10

Friday, March 29, 2019

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 10

1              Will Chemicals Save The Downstream Sector?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/woodmackenzie/2019/03/26/will-chemicals-save-the-downstream-sector/

Chemicals are integral to modern urban life, from the packaging that keeps our food fresher for longer, to the carpets in our homes and offices, the casings of our phones and computers, to the vehicles we drive.

2              $200B+ Could Be Invested in US Petchems
https://www.rigzone.com/news/200b_could_be_invested_in_us_petchems-28-mar-2019-158481-article/

During the 15-year span from 2010 to 2025, the U.S. petrochemicals industry is on track to invest more than $200 billion in hundreds of projects, according to Wood Mackenzie.

3              Unlocking Value From Data Is Key To A Successful Digital Transformation
https://www.forbes.com/sites/markvenables/2019/03/28/unlocking-value-from-data-is-key-to-a-successful-digital-transformation/

For oil and gas digital transformation is not a project where you make a roadmap and have a defined finish line, which, once crossed, constitutes a company being digitalized. Digitalization is achieved by implementing hundreds of use cases in a scalable manner.

4              Technology Is A Huge Driver Of The U.S. Oil And Gas Boom
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2019/03/25/technology-is-a-huge-driver-of-the-u-s-oil-and-gas-boom/

In the world of oil and natural gas, engineers, geologists, and drilling and production departments tend to get the lion’s share of the credit when good things happen, and most of the blame when they don’t. That’s fair, given the crucial roles these groups of employees play within the thousands of companies that make up the U.S. oil and gas industry.

5              Chinese LNG Imports Drop As Winters Nears End
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Chinese-LNG-Imports-Drop-As-Winters-Nears-End.html

China’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports increased in February compared to the same month last year, but fell from the record highs from January as the winter heating season approaches its end amid ample supplies in Asia.

6              Tight oil development will continue to drive future U.S. crude oil production – Today in Energy
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=38852

(AEO2019) Reference case projects that U.S. tight oil production, which became the more common form of oil production in 2015, will continue to increase through 2030, ultimately reaching more than 10 million barrels per day (b/d) in the early 2030s. Tight oil production reached 6.5 million b/d in the United States in 2018, accounting for 61% of total U.S. production. EIA projects further U.S. tight oil production growth as the industry continues to improve drilling efficiencies and reduce costs, which makes developing tight oil resources less sensitive to oil prices than in the past.

7              Denmark asks Nord Stream 2 to assess third route option for gas pipeline
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gazprom-nordstream-2-denmark-idUSKCN1R916S

The Danish Energy Agency has requested an environmental assessment of a third route option for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Danish waters, a move that could delay the project to pump Russian gas to Europe.

8              Food and beverage industries need to get on board with Industry 4.0
https://www.profoodworld.com/articles/food-and-beverage-industry-needs-get-board-industry-40

Speaking at the ProFood Tech Innovation Zone yesterday, Sasha Ilyukhin from Tetra Pak said that the food and beverage industry needs to embrace a customer-centric environment by driving digital through an organizational transformation. “Digital transformation equals human transformation,” said Ilyukhin.

9              Saudi Aramco to buy SABIC in $69 billion chemicals megadeal
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aramco-sabic-m-a-idUSKCN1R81QU

The world’s largest oil producer Saudi Aramco has agreed to buy a 70 percent stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) from the kingdom’s wealth fund for $69.1 billion in one of the biggest deals in the global chemical industry.

10           European Parliament votes overwhelmingly to ban single-use plastics
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/eu-plastics-ban-1.5074053
Single-use plastic items such as straws, forks and knives will be banned in the European Union by 2021 following a vote by EU lawmakers on Wednesday.

11           Putting Alberta’s Future Energy Policies To The Test
https://www.forbes.com/sites/energyinnovation/2019/03/27/putting-albertas-future-energy-policies-to-the-test/
Last week, Alberta’s premier called an election in the Western Canadian province, following a years-long economic downturn due to depressed global oil prices — which has dominated discussions about the province’s energy and economic future. Albertans increasingly recognize that business as usual is not a likely road to continued prosperity with changing global economics, raising questions about how the province’s energy policies should reflect this shift.

12           North America LNG liquefaction capacity to see major boost in 2023
https://www.lngindustry.com/liquid-natural-gas/27032019/north-america-lng-liquefaction-capacity-to-see-major-boost-in-2023/

According to GlobalData, North America is expected to add approximately 265 million tpy of LNG liquefaction capacity in 2023.

13           Kansas City Southern sees surging fuel-by-rail growth in Mexico
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-railways-idUSKCN1R801Z
The Mexican subsidiary of U.S. railroad operator Kansas City Southern expects its gasoline transport business to grow at least 15 percent by volume this year, and possibly much more, a senior executive said on Tuesday.

14           Pemex imports crude in February, despite president’s aversion
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-pemex-idUSKCN1R8046

Mexican state oil company Pemex imported crude oil in February despite the new president’s sharp criticism of the previous government’s authorization of foreign oil shipments, official data showed on Tuesday.

15           Report: Advanced Plastics Recycling Has Potential for $10 Billion Economic Output : Plastics Technology
https://www.ptonline.com/news/report-advanced-plastics-recycling-has-potential-for-10-billion-economic-output

If widely adopted, these processes could result in nearly 40,000 direct and indirect U.S. jobs, as much as $2.2 billion in annual payroll, and another $9.9 billion in direct and indirect economic output.

Business Intelligence and Analytics 9

Friday, March 22, 2019

Business Intelligence and Analytics 9

1              Top 7 Data Science Use Cases in Finance
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2018/05/top-7-data-science-use-cases-finance.html

In recent years, the ability of data science and machine learning to cope with a number of principal financial tasks has become an especially important point at issue. Companies want to know more what improvements the technologies bring and how they can reshape their business strategies.

2              Why people are essential to B2B marketing success
https://martechtoday.com/why-people-are-essential-to-b2b-marketing-success-231972

If you are sci-fi film buff, Charlton Heston’s desperate plea, “Soylent Green is people!” from the classic movie it’s dark, overwrought and partially in fun) is something today’s marketers should note. Your return on investment is dependent on people because people are essential to the modern B2B marketing strategy that actually drives real ROI.

3              What is Augmented Data Science and Why is it Important to My Business?
https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/what-is-augmented-data-science-and-why-is-it-important-to-my-1

If Data Science was once the sole domain of analysts and data scientists, Augmented Data Science represents the democratized view of this domain. With Augmented Data Science, the average business user can engage with advanced analytics tools that allow for automated machine learning (AutoML) and leverage sophisticated analytical techniques and algorithms in a guided environment that uses auto-recommendations and suggestions to lead users through the complex world of data science with ease and intuitive tools.

4              Why is Customer Churn Persistently High Regardless of Companies’ Sustained Efforts?
https://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/why-is-customer-churn-persistently-high-regardless-of-companies-sustained-efforts-02179766

Regardless of their relentless efforts, brands across industries suffer from churn problems in today’s competitive world. As shown in the image below, one of the major reasons why customers leave the company turns out to be poor customer service.

5              5 Conversion Optimization Tactics that Also Drive Traffic
https://www.convinceandconvert.com/digital-marketing/conversion-optimization-tactics/

Conversion optimization doesn’t have to stand in a way of traffic acquisition. In fact, CRO and SEO are even more effective when combined. These two marketing channels can (and should!) effectively inform and empower each other.

Here are 5 ways to boost your conversions while increasing traffic to your site:

6              Minimize Your Digital Platforms
https://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/minimize-your-digital-platforms-02181181

We have a hard time appreciating what drag does to our lives and work. If you’re used to sifting through your junk to find your clothes, notebooks, gadgets or everything to help you in a day, the friction may be lost on you. It’s become a habit that’s comfortable and unnoticeable over time.

7              10 Things Your Content Marketing Strategy Must Include
https://www.copyblogger.com/documented-content-strategy/

Here are my recommendations for 10 elements that make sense in a solid content marketing strategy. You may have additional thoughts, and I’d love to hear them in the comments!

8              The Ultimate List of Email Marketing Stats for 2019
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-marketing-stats

Nowadays, marketers put a lot of emphasis on chatbots, Instagram influencers, and other new opportunities to reach their customers.

But your contemporary communication methods shouldn’t distract you from one of the oldest and yet most effective messaging channels — email.

9              How to Automatically Determine the Number of Clusters in your Data – and more
https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-automatically-determine-the-number-of-clusters-in-your-dat

Determining the number of clusters when performing unsupervised clustering is a tricky problem. Many data sets don’t exhibit well separated clusters, and two human beings asked to visually tell the number of clusters by looking at a chart, are likely to provide two different answers. Sometimes clusters overlap with each other, and large clusters contain sub-clusters, making a decision not easy.

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 9

Friday, March 22, 2019

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 9

1              Resin Pricing
https://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20190322/NEWS/190327645/pvc-pet-resin-prices-up-pp-down-in-february

North American commodity resins squeezed some action into the short month of February, with prices for PVC and PET bottle resin both going up, while polypropylene prices declined.

Regional PVC prices moved up an average of 2 cents per pound for the month, while PET ticked up 1 cent and PP slid 1.5 cents. Prices for all grades of polyethylene and solid polystyrene in the region were flat for the month.

2              US Emerging as a LNG Powerhouse
https://www.rigzone.com/news/us_emerging_as_a_lng_powerhouse-22-mar-2019-158435-article/

The LNG export market is projected to surge over the next three decades. Last month month, ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum announced that they will proceed with construction of the >$10 billion Golden Pass liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility on the Texas Gulf Coast. This project would export up to 2.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of LNG, and is just one of more than 50 LNG export projects to be approved by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

3              US midstream boom gathers pace
https://www.petroleum-economist.com/articles/politics-economics/north-america/2019/us-midstream-boom-gathers-pace

The US midstream sector is on a building spree, connecting rapidly growing oil, gas, and natural gas liquids (NGL) production to demand and export centres. Companies and analysts expect liquids and gas output in the prolific Permian, Bakken, and Marcellus/Utica shale regions to amply justify infrastructure already under construction. But they caution that the sector’s growth beyond 2021 faces challenges as projects compete for financing and new volumes, and the US refining sector further adjusts to the country’s light tight oil (LTO) and gas bonanza.

4              LyondellBasell technology selected by Lianyungang Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/petrochemicals/20032019/lyondellbasell-technology-selected-by-lianyungang-petrochemical-co-ltd/

LyondellBasell has announced that Lianyungang Petrochemical Co., Ltd (a company of Zhejiang Satellite) has selected Hostalen Advanced Cascade Process’ (Hostalen ACP) technology from LyondellBasell for a 400 000 tpy high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant to be built at Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, China.

5              Canada’s Natural Gas Crisis Is Going Under The Radar | OilPrice.com
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Gas-Prices/Canadas-Natural-Gas-Crisis-Is-Going-Under-The-Radar.html

While Canada’s oil crisis has stolen much of the media spotlight in recent months, Canadian natural gas producers have been going through a similar predicament—not enough takeaway capacity amid growing production, and as a result, plunging domestic prices.

6              Two-Sided Trade in China Highlights Concerns Over Fed Policy, Trade Relations
https://www.fxempire.com/news/article/two-sided-trade-in-china-highlights-concerns-over-fed-policy-trade-relations-563326

The price action suggests traders will need a few more days and sessions to interpret the recent change in Fed positioning and to absorb the further developments with regard to trade and geo-political factors

7              Murphy Oil sells Malaysia assets to PTTEP for $2.1 billion, turns toward home
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-murphy-oil-malaysia-pttep-idUSKCN1R216S

Murphy Oil Corp is exiting Malaysia with a $2.13 billion sale of its oil and gas assets there to Thailand’s PTTEP and said it will use the proceeds to pay down debt, buy back shares and fund potential deals in the United States.

8              Braskem Moves Closer to Developing ‘Green’ PET: Plastics Technology
https://www.ptonline.com/blog/post/braskem-moves-closer-to-developing-green-pet

With Danish technology partner, Braskem has started up renewable MEG demonstration unit.

9              Mexico could pay Pemex debt from $15 billion stabilization fund
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-oil-idUSKCN1R303B

Mexico’s deputy finance minister said on Thursday the government was considering using part of a $15.4 billion public income stabilization fund to pay some debt obligations for heavily leveraged state oil company Pemex.

10           AMLO risks a fall as he tries to pull Pemex back from the brink
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2019/3/21/amlo-risks-a-fall-as-he-tries-to-pull-pemex-back-from-the-brink

Pemex is personal for Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who grew up in Mexico’s oil heartland at a time when the state company was a source of national pride.

11           Japan LNG
https://www.naturalgasworld.com/japan-future-uncertainty-but-potential-upside-lng-condensed-68811

Japan is by far the world’s largest single LNG importer and has been the undisputed titan of the Asian LNG market for decades, its policies determining everything from industry investment models to contract terms and prices. So the projections in a recent study by the Institute for Energy Economics Japan (IEEJ) make for sober reading. Not only does the IEEJ Outlook 2019 project that Japanese gas demand — all supplied by LNG – will fall in absolute terms from 117 bn m3 in 2016 to 96 bn m3 in 2050, but Japan’s share of overall Asian gas demand will plummet from 18% to 5.5% over the same period.

12           U.S. ‘’Oil Weapon’’ Could Change Geopolitics Forever
https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/International/US-Oil-Weapon-Could-Change-Geopolitics-Forever.html

In a dynamic that shows just how far U.S. oil production has come in recent years, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)  said on Monday that in the last two months of 2018, the U.S. Gulf Coast exported more crude oil than it imported.

13           LNG Sector Dangerously Dependent On Chinese Demand
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/LNG-Sector-Dangerously-Dependent-On-Chinese-Demand.html

The liquefied natural gas industry has become too reliant on demand for the fuel from China, industry executives warned at last week’s CERAWeek, advising players in the LNG field to try and broaden their markets before they begin suffering the impact of this overreliance.

14           “Perfect Storm” Drives Oil Prices Higher
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Perfect-Storm-Drives-Oil-Prices-Higher.html

Oil prices have already hit four-month highs, forcing a range of analysts to overhaul their expectations for this year.

“The latest Brent rally has brought prices to our peak forecast of $67.5/bbl, three months early,” Goldman Sachs wrote in a note. The investment bank said that “resilient demand growth” and supply outages could push prices up to $70 per barrel in the near future.

15           OPEC: Members to restore market stability during 2019
https://www.offshoreenergytoday.com/opec-members-to-restore-market-stability-during-2019/

OPEC said on Monday that the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) convened in Baku, Azerbaijan, for its thirteenth meeting on March 18. The Committee reviewed the monthly report prepared by its Joint Technical Committee (JTC) and recent developments in the global oil market as well as prospects for the remainder of 2019.

Business Intelligence and Analytics 8

Friday, March 8, 2019

Business Intelligence and Analytics 8

Next week is March Break in Ontario, I will be away from the office. No Newsletter

1              7 Advantages of Data-Driven Content
https://blog.searchmetrics.com/us/7-advantages-of-data-driven-content/

How can I improve my content’s search engine rankings? It’s a question all marketing experts ask and now it’s one that can be answered: with data-driven content optimization. While the success of online content used to be largely left to chance, it is now possible to impact results in a sustainable and targeted manner. From research and writing, all the way up to publication – every step of the content process can be tailored to meet the demands of search engine algorithms.

2              IAB: 78% of marketers will spend more on data in 2019
https://www.marketingdive.com/news/iab-78-of-marketers-will-spend-more-on-data-in-2019/549811/

Marketers plan to spend more on data and data-related services in 2019, according to findings of the report “The Outlook for Data 2019: A Snapshot Into the Evolving Role of Audience Insight” by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and consulting firm Winterberry Group, shared with Marketing Dive.

3              3 Tips for Taking Action from Your Website Data
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/website-data-taking-action/295881/

Data visualization is the act of taking information (data) and placing it into a visual context, such as a map or graph. Data visualizations make big and small data easier for the human brain to understand, and visualization also makes it easier to detect patterns, trends, and outliers in groups of data. Good data visualizations should place meaning into complicated datasets so that their message is clear and concise.

4              Market Segmentation – Refining Your Target Market
https://www.business2community.com/marketing/market-segmentation-refining-your-target-market-02174701

We spend a lot of time discussing how to select your target audience as part of creating an inbound marketing plan. Hopefully you know who your target audience is for your small business. But have you taken the time to further divide that target audience into smaller market segments?

5              B2B Tech Marketing Budget, Content & Strategy Trends
https://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2019/40684/b2b-tech-marketing-in-2019-budget-content-and-strategy-trends

Most marketers who work for B2B technology firms expect their budgets to grow or stay the same this year, according to recent research from Spiceworks.  The report was based on data from a survey conducted in October 2018 among 352 marketers who work for B2B technology companies of various sizes in North America and Europe.

6              7 Psychological Triggers Every Marketer Should Master
https://www.business2community.com/marketing/7-psychological-triggers-every-marketer-should-master-02175062

Marketers can employ a number of techniques to drive people to take action — flashy design, catchy copy, celebrity endorsements, etc. But nothing is more effective than psychological triggers.

7              Another 10 Free Must-Read Books for Machine Learning and Data Science
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2019/03/another-10-free-must-read-books-for-machine-learning-and-data-science.html

Here’s a third set of 10 free books for machine learning and data science. Have a look to see if something catches your eye, and don’t forget to check the previous installments for reading material while you’re here.

8              What is kinetic typography? marketing
https://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing/kinetic-typography-video-marketing/

Kinetic typography is a concept that involves using moving type to express an idea. Some of the most widely known examples of it appear in the opening credits of feature-length films.

9              Learn the Top Landing Page Best Practices from Marketo
https://blog.marketo.com/2019/03/3-next-level-landing-page-best-practices-for-2019.html

Landing pages are Marketing 101—or at least they should be. Top-notch marketers must know how to build compelling landing pages specially designed to convince customers to engage and convert.

10           Why the Key to AI Success is a Tidy Data House
https://tdwi.org/articles/2019/03/08/adv-all-key-to-ai-success-is-tidy-data-house.aspx

Despite all the talk about artificial intelligence (AI), adoption has yet to reach its pinnacle. Many organizations are taking smart steps to implement new technologies. Instead of buying into the hype, they ask critical questions to garner the strongest ROI, resulting in a delay in broad adoption.

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 8

Friday, March 8, 2019

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 8

Next week is March Break in Ontario, I will be away from the office. No Newsletter.

1              Oil drops 2 percent as economic outlook weakens, U.S. supply surges
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKCN1QP03Z

Oil prices dropped close to 2 percent on Friday on a worsening global economic outlook after the European Central Bank (ECB) warned of continued weakness and fresh data showed Chinese imports and exports slumped last month.

2              Weekly resin report: Processors anticipate another decrease in PP prices
https://www.plasticstoday.com/resin-pricing/weekly-resin-report-processors-anticipate-another-decrease-pp-prices/42169694860381

Spot resin trading volumes eased back last week from the frantic pace seen during most of February, but the total tally was still above average, reports the PlasticsExchange (Chicago) in its weekly Market Update. Buyers continued to scoop up favorable polyethylene (PE) offers, while polypropylene (PP) processors only picked away as needed.

3              Forecasting The Oil Price For Fun And Profit (But Not Accuracy)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellynch/2019/03/05/forecasting-the-oil-price-for-fun-and-profit-but-not-accuracy/

Over twenty years ago, while in Norway, I showed a group of economists their government’s track record in forecasting national oil production: they consistently predicted a near-term peak and decline and had done so nearly since the beginning of production. At the time of my talk, production had grown regularly and did not appear to be slowing, suggesting that the forecasts needed to be revised.

4              Exxon Mobil sees 2020 capex rising by up to 16 percent
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-mobil-meeting-idUSKCN1QN1HI

Exxon Mobil Corp said on Wednesday it plans to open its wallet and increase capital spending by 10 percent to 16 percent next year, as the U.S. oil major looks to restore flagging oil and gas production despite investor pressures to boost returns.

5              New U.S. power plants expected to be mostly natural gas combined-cycle and solar PV
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=38612

EIA’s long-term projections show that most of the electricity generating capacity additions installed in the United States through 2050 will be natural gas combined-cycle and solar photovoltaic (PV). Onshore wind looks to be competitive in only a few regions before the legislated phase-out of the production tax credit (PTC), but it becomes competitive later in the projection period as demand increases and the cost for installing wind turbines continues to decline.

6              U.S. Petroleum Exports May Surpass Saudis by Year-End: Rystad
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/commodities/

America’s booming oil production could set the stage for country’s total petroleum exports to surpass those of Saudi Arabia by end-2019, according to Rystad Energy AS.

7              Tracking the decoupling of electricity demand and associated CO2 emissions
https://www.iea.org/newsroom/news/2019/march/tracking-the-decoupling-of-electricity-demand-and-associated-co2-emissions.html

Since 1990, the global CO2 intensity of electricity generation – that is, the amount of CO2 emissions created for each kWh of power generated – has remained broadly stable. Until the early 2010s, growth in CO2 emissions from electricity generation kept pace with electricity demand growth. However the last few years have shown a decoupling: electricity demand continues to rise, but emissions from power generation have begun to flatten.

8              Unlikely twins and differing fortunes: Malaysia’s Petronas & Indonesia’s Pertamina
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-petronas-pertamina-insight-idUSKCN1QO0GR

On the southernmost edge of the Asian landmass and on the shores of the busy shipping lanes of the Singapore Strait, Malaysia’s Petronas is starting up a state-of-the art petroleum processing hub, called RAPID.

9              Is This As Good As It Gets For Oil?

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Is-This-As-Good-As-It-Gets-For-Oil.html
Crude oil prices have gone up twenty-seven percent from their Christmas week lows. Many analysts, company representatives, and OPEC officials see them rising further. The 1.2-million-barrels-per-day cut in oil production instituted in January by OPEC members and other countries (OPEC+) has encouraged these views.

10           U.S. LNG exports pick up, with Europe a major buyer
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lng-usa-idUSKCN1QO1KC

Shipments of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) have gathered pace in March and Europe is set to stay a top destination for spot cargoes with Asian prices still too low to ship the chilled fuel that far.

11           Exclusive: Rosneft postpones hydrocracking upgrade at five refineries: sources
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-rosneft-upgrade-exclusive-idUSKCN1QO1GL

Russia’s Rosneft is postponing an upgrade of hydrocracking units at five of its refineries, meaning the company will continue paying higher export taxes on the heavy products they produce, three sources told Reuters on Thursday.

12           Chevron, Exxon take turns wooing investors with shale boasts
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chevron-outlook-idUSKCN1QM1GD

The two biggest U.S. oil companies tried to outdo each other on Tuesday, boasting about their prowess in shale to lure investors to their side.

13           S&P cuts Pemex credit rating as outlook sinks for other Mexican firms, banks
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-pemex-s-p-idUSKCN1QL1W8

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on Monday slashed the credit rating for Mexico’s national oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, piling more pressure on the government to tighten up the debt-laden oil firm’s finances.

14           Why Oil And Gas Needs To Adopt A Silicon Valley State Of Mind
https://www.forbes.com/sites/markvenables/2019/02/28/why-oil-and-gas-needs-to-adopt-a-silicon-valley-state-of-mind/

The goal behind the digital oilfield is to optimize oilfield operations through the provision and implementation of data and analysis tools. These digital methodologies are becoming more common in logistics and machinery monitoring – areas that can be translated from other industries. However, the holy grail remains the provision of real-time, reliable production data.

15           Total buys 10 percent stake in Arctic LNG 2 project from Novatek
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-total-russia-novatek-idUSKCN1QM0PC

Total has agreed to buy a 10 percent stake in the Arctic LNG 2 project from Russia’s Novatek, as the French energy group looks to build up its presence in the area to service a fast-growing Asian market.