Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 70

Friday, June 26, 2020

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 70

1          The Next Hard Oil Price Indicator
https://www.rigzone.com/news/the_next_hard_oil_price_indicator-23-jun-2020-162513-article/
The next hard indicator that will weigh on oil prices is the upcoming July OPEC+ meeting, according to Rystad Energy’s Head of Oil Markets Bjornar Tonhaugen.

“It’s the meeting before the end of the deep cuts and an event with authority to make new difficult decisions in case Covid-19 brings again the need for them,” Tonhaugen said in a statement sent to Rigzone on Tuesday.

2          What’s Next For Oil Prices?
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Whats-Next-For-Oil-Prices23906.html
Crude oil has rebounded to $40 per barrel and hoping to stay there. Some analysts have come out with more bullish forecasts for the near-term, but plenty of risks remain. “Good production discipline on the part of OPEC+ coupled with a massive involuntary reduction in production in the US on the one hand, plus the rapid recovery of demand on the other, have caused supply surpluses to be eroded significantly more quickly than anticipated,” Commerzbank wrote in a note on Monday.

3          Buyers of U.S. LNG to cancel 40-45 cargoes for August loading. US LNG Exports Slump
https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/us-lng-exports-slump/
The surge in reported cases is partly a consequence of a successful ramp-up of testing. The last time the US was reporting more than 30,000 new daily cases, it was testing about 220,000 people a day. For the past week, it has been testing more than 520,000 a day.

However, the proportion of test results coming back positive has also been rising. It bottomed out at about 4.4% in the first half of June, but had ticked up to 5.7% by the five days to Wednesday.

4          EIA: Henry Hub dips to record lows
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/eia-henry-hub-dips-to-record-lows/
Citing Natural Gas Intelligence data, U.S. Energy Information Administration notes that the Henry Hub reached $1.38 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on June 16, 2020, the lowest daily Henry Hub price without adjusting for inflation and in nominal dollars since December 1998.

After starting 2020 relatively low, the price at Henry Hub so far this summer has continued to trend low because of high natural gas storage levels and declines in natural gas demand, specifically in exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) feedgas and in the industrial sector.

5          U.S. Oil Industry Lobbies Trump To Keep Mexican Energy Reform
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/US-Oil-Industry-Lobbies-Trump-To-Keep-Mexican-Energy-Reform.html

U.S. oil companies are calling on President Donald Trump to help persuade Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador not to ditch the energy reforms that his predecessor launched, opening Mexico’s oil industry to private investment, including to U.S. energy companies.

6          U.S. and Canadian oil & gas rig count falls to record lows: Baker Hughes
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-rigs-baker-hughes-idUSKBN23Q2WU
U.S. and Canadian energy firms cut the number of oil and natural gas rigs operating to a record low even as higher oil prices prompt some producers to start drilling again.

The U.S. oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, fell to a record low for a seventh week in a row, dropping by 13 to 266 in the week to June 19, according to data from energy services firm Baker Hughes Co (BKR.N) going back to 1940. RIG-OL-USA-BHI RIG-OL-USA-BHI RIG-GS-USA-BHI

That was 701 rigs, or 72%, below this time last year.

7          BP’s stranded Canadian, Angolan assets expose wider industry risks
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bp-strandedassets-analysis-idUSKBN23V1ZY
When BP (BP.L) slashed its long-term oil price outlook last week, prospects in Canada and Angola were rendered worthless, company sources and analysts said, exposing broader risks the industry faces as the world pivots to low-carbon energy.

The $17.5 billion write-down, part of Chief Executive Bernard Looney’s drive to wean BP off fossil fuel, was the biggest the London-based company booked since the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

8          Weekly Resin Report: Spot Market Prices Continue to Rise
https://www.plasticstoday.com/resin-pricing/weekly-resin-report-spot-market-prices-continue-rise/135156740263248

Customer demand improved last week and buyers became more comfortable with the higher price level that has crept into the market, reports the PlasticsExchange in its Market Update. The overall spot market could no longer be characterized as loose, and some commodity grades were outright scarce. Spot levels continued to rise, as polyethylene (PE) gained a cent, on average, with some variance seen by grade. Spot PE prices now reflect most of the $0.04/lb June increase. Polypropylene (PP) prices added a cent for the first time in seven weeks, though little change, if any, is expected for June PP contracts.

9          Oil prices erase gains in U.S. trade, set for weekly falls
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKBN23X01R
Oil prices dipped on Friday, erasing earlier gains, on concerns about rising new coronavirus cases in the United States and China and expectations of U.S. output ticking up while crude stockpiles linger at record highs.

Brent crude LCOc1 futures were 13 cents lower at $40.92 at 1342 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures were down 33 cents at $38.39.

The contracts are on track for weekly falls of around 3.1% and 3.6%, respectively, after record U.S. crude inventory data dragged prices down on Wednesday.

10        How The Oil Price Crash Changed Upstream
https://www.rigzone.com/news/how_the_oil_price_crash_changed_upstream-25-jun-2020-162543-article/
This crash, which saw prices dip into negative territory recently, has wiped $1.6 trillion off WoodMac’s valuation of the global upstream industry. The company has slashed its forecast for global upstream development spend for this year by 30 percent, compared to its pre-crash view, and now expects only nine major final investment decisions this year, compared to its pre-crash prediction of around 50 new project approvals.

11        Building Upstream Portfolio Resilience
https://www.woodmac.com/news/the-edge/building-upstream-portfolio-resilience/
What is resilience?

Simply, the ability to thrive through the cycle, making money at the bottom as well as performing well when prices are higher. The financial framework is important – balance sheet strength, liquidity and cash flow, as well as flexibility on spend. It’s also a lot to do with portfolio. Whether in refining, petrochemicals, new energy or upstream, the lowest cost producers will typically be the most resilient, able to generate free cash flow even at depressed commodity prices.

12        Declining U.S. Chemical Industry Output, With Potential Rebound in 2021
https://www.americanchemistry.com/Media/PressReleasesTranscripts/ACC-news-releases/Mid-Year-2020-Chemical-Industry-Situation-and-Outlook.html

Key U.S. chemical industry metrics will be lower this year, according to the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) Mid-Year 2020 Chemical Industry Situation and Outlook. Production volumes, shipments and capital spending will fall due to economic and business disruption caused by COVID-19. A rebound in 2021 is projected, although significant uncertainty remains.

13        Tight margins to speed up need for digitalization after Covid-19 proved value
https://www.bicmagazine.com/departments/maintenance-reliability/pu-tight-margins-to-speed-up-need-for-digitalization-after-c/

The need for savings to face shrinking margins should speed up digitalization efforts by oil and petrochemical companies after Covid-19 helped prove the value of past investment, as reported by Petrochemical Update.

Some producers may not survive an environment of challenged margins “because they haven’t digitalized enough,” said Mark Wyszynski, senior information technology advisor to projects and engineering at Shell, during the Petrochemical Update Downstream 2020 conference in June.

14        Recovery programme to phase out solid fossil fuels in EU
https://www.argusmedia.com/pages/NewsBody.aspx?id=2117660&menu=yes
EU member states have agreed on a draft legal text linking a proposed €40bn regional recovery programme to phasing out solid fossil fuels, including coal, lignite, peat and oil shale.

The final legal text governing use of funds under a so-called “just transition fund” still needs to be agreed with the European Parliament. The fund aims to assist vulnerable regions and sectors with their transition to a climate-neutral economy.

15        Shale Oil Recovery Seen Taking Years After Decade of Excess
https://www.oilandgas360.com/shale-oil-recovery-seen-taking-years-after-decade-of-excess/
As oil prices tick up to $40 a barrel following a pandemic-induced plunge, there’s a sense the shale industry is snapping back to life with Continental Resources Inc., EOG Resources Inc. and Parsley Energy Inc. all saying they’re restarting closed wells.

But top industry forecasters are painting a far darker picture. The reopenings, they say, will do little to bring new growth to an industry being increasingly starved of cash by Wall Street after a decade of excess. Even before the pandemic, investors were demanding companies spend no more than they earn. Now, that’s become a major barrier to future growth.

16        Oil Business Activity Index Sinks to Historic Low
https://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_business_activity_index_sinks_to_historic_low-25-jun-2020-162534-article/

Activity in the oil and gas sector continued to deteriorate further during the second quarter of this year, according to responses to the latest Dallas Fed Energy Survey. The business activity index—the survey’s broadest measure of circumstances facing Eleventh District energy firms—fell from -50.9 in the first quarter to -66.1 in the second quarter, marking the lowest reading in the survey’s four-year history.

17        Saudi Arabia’s Oil Price War Cost The Kingdom $12 Billion In One Month
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Saudi-Arabias-Oil-Price-War-Cost-The-Kingdom-12-Billion-In-One-Month.html

Despite record oil exports in April as Saudi Arabia flooded the market with excess oil, the value of the Kingdom’s crude exports plunged by US$12 billion from April 2019 levels as the lowest oil prices in years hit revenues.

In April, the value of Saudi Arabia’s oil exports plummeted by 65.4 percent, or by US$12 billion (45.3 billion Saudi riyals), dragging down the value of the total merchandise exports of the world’s top oil exporter, data from Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Statistics showed on Thursday.

18        Russia takes a leaf out the U.S. shale oil playbook
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-global-russia-insight-idUSKBN23V3CQ
Russia is taking a leaf out of the U.S. shale playbook so it can ramp up oil production quickly and hang on to its share of the global market when demand finally recovers after the coronavirus pandemic.

At least two state-owned banks, Sberbank (SBER.MM) and VEB, plan to lend oil firms some 400 billion roubles ($6 billion) at effectively almost zero interest rates to drill about 3,000 unfinished wells, officials involved in the scheme told Reuters.

19        With contracts canceled and debts mounting, offshore oil drillers face another shakeout
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-offshore-drillers-graphic-idUSKBN23V0J3
A collapse of the offshore industry will have broad impact. Drillers and their suppliers have driven innovation that has helped shale and offshore wind companies by pioneering remote monitoring and control, and last year directly generated about 25% of global oil production.

The offshore services business is the worst performing of the oilfield services sector, with shares of the 10 largest publicly traded down 77% since the start of the year.

20        ADNOC announces $20.7 billion energy infrastructure investment deal
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/23/adnoc-announces-20point7-billion-energy-infrastructure-investment-deal.html

A consortium of six global investors has entered into a $20.7 billion agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the state-owned oil company said Tuesday.

As part of the agreement, the group will invest $10.1 billion to acquire a 49% stake in a newly-formed subsidiary, ADNOC Gas Pipeline Assets, with lease rights to 38 pipelines. ADNOC will hold the majority stake of 51% and will retain ownership of the pipelines. It will also manage operations and remain responsible for capital expenditure.

21        Shale industry to be rocked by $300 billion in losses, bankruptcies: Deloitte
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/22/shale-industry-will-be-rocked-by-300-billion-in-losses-and-a-wave-of-bankruptcies-deloitte-says.html

The U.S. shale industry is about to enter a period of “great compression” as low oil prices hammer the sector, according to a Deloitte study released Monday.

The firm believes that exploration and production companies could  write down the value of their assets by as much as $300 billion as they struggle to breakeven in a lower-for-longer oil price environment. Significant impairments are expected in the second quarter. Based on this, the firm envisions a wave of bankruptcies followed by mass consolidation.

Recycling, Renewables and Sustainable Business 41

Friday, June 26, 2020

Recycling, Renewables and Sustainable Business 41

1          Battery makers face looming shortages of high-quality lithium
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/battery-makers-face-looming-shortages-of-high-quality-lithium/580482/
Battery makers are facing a shortage of lithium, and ongoing financial problems in markets suppressed by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to industry insiders at an Atlantic Council panel on Wednesday.

Shortages of lithium specialty chemicals are expected by the mid-2020’s, “given the current pace of supply development,” Vivas Kumar, a principal consultant with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and former senior manager for Tesla’s battery supply chain, said on the panel.

2          Recent LG Chem, CATL, & SK Innovation Battery News
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/06/23/recent-lg-chem-catl-sk-innovation-battery-news/
The good news in 2020: there’s a lot of battery news! If it wasn’t for other things … ahem … I think we could call 2020 “The Year of the Battery.” A week and a half ago, I published a roundup of 10 battery stories we couldn’t give their own headlines. Many others have gotten their own headlines. Three of the top companies in EV battery world had some notable news at the end of April that never saw the light of day here on CleanTechnica, though.

3          EV Batteries Are About To Get Their Own Passports
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/EV-Batteries-Are-About-To-Get-Their-Own-Passports.html
Back in 2018, tech giant IBM unveiled a unique blockchain-based technology that can track diamonds, gold, and precious stones used in jewelry through all stages of the global supply chain, right from a mine located thousands of miles away to the customer. The technology helps establish the provenance of jewelry for quality assurance and authenticity purposes while limiting the trade of so-called blood diamonds that are mined in conflict zones.

And now, the EV sector has adapted this idea to batteries after launching ‘Battery Passport,’ a global quality seal and verification tool on a digital platform that will share value chain data of EV batteries.

4          Ford plans to go carbon neutral by 2050
https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/ford-carbon-neutral-by-2050/580433/
The Ford Motor Company aspires to achieve carbon neutrality globally by 2050, according to the company’s 21st sustainability report released Wednesday. It is working with Ceres and the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to set scope 1, 2 and 3 environmental goals in line with the Paris Agreement.

Ford will invest $11.5 billion in its electric vehicle lines through 2022, as well as reducing carbon dioxide production, water use and waste across its facilities and supplier base. These areas are responsible for 95% of the company’s current emissions, according to a press release.

5          Manufacturing industry seeks unity on wafer size
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/06/25/manufacturing-industry-seeks-unity-on-wafer-size/
Seven solar manufacturers, including tier-1 players, have signed up to a joint initiative aiming to establish a new standard size for silicon wafers at 182mm x 182mm. Conspicuously absent from the initiative is China’s Zhonghuan Semiconductor, which last year introduced a 210mm solar wafer, the largest seen in the industry so far.

6          By 2029, Half of New US Wind Installations Will Be Offshore
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/by-2029-half-of-new-us-wind-installations-will-be-offshore
The United States offshore wind industry is set to ramp up from near-zero today to as much as 25 gigawatts in 2029, according to new Wood Mackenzie research.

That means offshore wind will capture almost half of the US market for new wind power installations by the end of the decade — if the industry can avoid potential permitting and transmission capacity challenges.

On the other hand, if the market moves more slowly, the total build this decade will total just 15 gigawatts.

7          Satellites reveal major new gas industry methane leaks
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-methane-satellites-insi-idUSKBN23W3K4
Last fall, European Space Agency satellites detected huge plumes of the invisible planet-warming gas methane leaking from the Yamal pipeline that carries natural gas from Siberia to Europe.

Energy consultancy Kayrros estimated one leak was spewing out 93 tonnes of methane every hour, meaning the daily emissions from the leakage were equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide pumped out in a year by 15,000 cars in the United States.

8          Well Built Green Stimulus Packages Can Revitalize Economies, Help the Climate
https://about.bnef.com/blog/well-built-green-stimulus-packages-can-revitalize-economies-help-the-climate/
Governments are unveiling trillions of dollars of stimulus measures to revive the economy from a potentially deeper downturn than the 2008-09 financial crisis. Amid great uncertainty, there are known knowns: post-lockdown life will be different from what came before; and the world still needs to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change. But which specific ideas can most effectively drive clean growth?

9          Amazon pledges $2 billion venture capital fund to invest in clean energy
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-clean-energy-idUSKBN23U1OP
Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) said on Tuesday it will launch a $2 billion venture capital fund that will focus on technology investments to reduce the impact of climate change and support sustainable development.

The Climate Pledge Fund will invest in companies across industries such as transportation and logistics, energy, storage and utilization, manufacturing and materials, and food and agriculture, the e-commerce giant said.

10        German hydrogen economy to spark traded market for imports: consultants
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-hydrogen-imports-idUSKBN23T1JT
Germany’s push to increase the use of hydrogen as a clean fuel to meet climate targets will require imports and a traded market to supplement home-produced supplies, a consultancy close to protagonists in the emerging industry said.

“There will have to be a mix of domestic and foreign hydrogen volumes, depending on where the cheaper source is,” said Andreas Schwenzer, principal consultant at Horvath & Partners, which advises the gas network Open Grid Europe.

11        Low-cost direct solar-to-hydrogen ambitions see the light
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/06/22/low-cost-direct-solar-to-hydrogen-ambitions-see-the-light/
Australian National University (ANU) researchers have more than nudged the dial on the efficiency of solar-to-hydrogen production processes which bypass electrolysers and avoid AC/DC power conversion and transmission losses. An ANU-based group say their world record 17.6% efficiency – achieved with perovskite-silicon tandem absorbers – is open to further refinement which could see clean hydrogen production become cost competitive with fuels including brown hydrogen and gas more quickly than expected.

12        EU draft hydrogen plan splits supporters down color-coded lines
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-hydrogen-idUSKBN23W1RQ
Energy industry lobbyists and advocates of renewable hydrogen are divided over whether the bloc should support low-carbon hydrogen produced by fossil fuels ahead of a new EU strategy next month.

The EU’s executive Commission plans to publish its hydrogen strategy on July 8, which will form the basis for EU regulation and funding to scale up production of the fuel to replace fossil fuels in sectors including chemicals and transport.

13        Local Governments Advance Clean Energy Transition
https://solarindustrymag.com/local-governments-advance-clean-energy-transition
As of March, local governments have signed 335 deals to procure a total of 8.28 GW of renewable energy over the last five years – more than the total energy generation capacity of Alaska, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Vermont combined.

This data was compiled by the Local Government Renewables Action Tracker, a new resource launched by the American Cities Climate Challenge Renewables Accelerator that documents renewable energy deals executed by U.S. city, county and tribal governments.

14        ArcelorMittal seeks EU support to make steel greener
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-arcelormittal-carbon-idUSKBN23W1W9
Europe’s steelmakers like ArcelorMittal, are under pressure to cut carbon emissions while maintaining profitability in a market where there is fierce competition, mainly from China.

“The support the EU and member states can give to ensure we have a well-designed policy to make large-scale, competitive, carbon-neutral steelmaking a reality, is critical,” Chief Financial Officer Aditya Mittal said on a call.

15        Millions of Americans can’t afford water as bills rise 80% in a decade
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/23/millions-of-americans-cant-afford-water-bills-rise
Millions of ordinary Americans are facing rising and unaffordable bills for running water, and risk being disconnected or losing their homes if they cannot pay, a landmark Guardian investigation has found.

Exclusive analysis of 12 US cities shows the combined price of water and sewage increased by an average of 80% between 2010 and 2018, with more than two-fifths of residents in some cities living in neighbourhoods with unaffordable bills.

16        10 examples of building performance standards: ACEEE
https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/10-examples-of-building-performance-standards-aceee/580311/
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released a white paper on Monday calling on jurisdictions globally to explore mandatory building energy performance standards to meet long-term climate goals, energy savings and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions.

The report outlined 10 jurisdictions with existing standards, ranging from the Tokyo Cap-and-Trade program to Washington State’s Clean Buildings Bill, to illustrate the many approaches that can be taken in developing a building performance program. ACEEE also outlined a handful of pending building performance standards, as well as details on a number of “stepping-stone” programs in U.S. cities that can lead to whole-building performance standards.

17        Fortum’s new CEO sees natural gas, hydrogen helping green transition
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fortum-oyj-ceo-idUSKBN23V1HP
The new chief executive of Fortum (FORTUM.HE) said on Wednesday natural gas and hydrogen could help Europe shift to clean energy and promised to present a strategy for the Finnish utility and its newly acquired German rival Uniper by the end of 2020.

The state-controlled group named Chief Financial Officer Markus Rauramo as its new chief executive on Wednesday as it seeks to integrate Uniper (UN01.DE), now 73.4% owned by Fortum after a two-year struggle to overcome resistance from Uniper managers.

18        Tesla’s reluctant commitment to cobalt a warning to others
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-cobalt-ahome-idUSKBN23U20Q
Just when his electric vehicle (EV) company Tesla seemed to be pivoting away from using cobalt in its batteries, it signs a long-term supply deal for the controversial metal with Glencore.

This from the man who has vowed to eliminate cobalt from the Tesla product mix because of its financial cost and the reputational cost of a metal associated with child labour and poor safety conditions at artisanal mining operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the world’s dominant producer.

19        Trillion-dollar investors warn Brazil over ‘dismantling’ of environmental policies
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/23/trillion-dollar-investors-warn-brazil-over-dismantling-of-environmental-policies

Investors managing trillions of dollars in assets have warned Brazil that escalating deforestation and the “dismantling” of policies to protect the environment and indigenous communities are “creating widespread uncertainty about the conditions for investing”.

Amazon destruction rose to its highest level in more than a decade last year, Brazil’s first under the leadership of Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right nationalist who has vowed to develop the region and slash environmental protections.

20        Massachusetts Moves to Follow California, New York in Planning for Natural Gas Phaseout
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/massachusetts-to-follow-california-and-new-york-in-planning-for-natural-gas-phase-down

Massachusetts may become just the third state, after California and New York, to begin planning for a managed decline of its conventional natural gas industry.

This month the state’s attorney general, Maura Healey, asked the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to open an investigation into the future of natural gas in the state.

21        Spain pushes clean energy decree to speed renewable rollout
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-spain-renewables-idUSKBN23U1PE
Spain’s cabinet approved on Tuesday a decree aimed at smoothing the rollout of renewable energy generation, with measures to combat speculation in the market, cut red tape and overhaul an outdated auction system to reassure investors and lower prices.

Spain wants to make use of rich natural resources including prodigious sunlight both to reduce pollution and create jobs, in response to the devastation the coronavirus has wrought on an economy that relies heavily on tourism and cars.

Business Intelligence and Analytics 70

Friday, June 26, 2020

Business Intelligence and Analytics 70

1          A Crisis Like No Other, An Uncertain Recovery
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2020/06/24/WEOUpdateJune2020
Global growth is projected at –4.9 percent in 2020, 1.9 percentage points below the April 2020 World Economic Outlook (WEO) forecast. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a more negative impact on activity in the first half of 2020 than anticipated, and the recovery is projected to be more gradual than previously forecast. In 2021 global growth is projected at 5.4 percent. Overall, this would leave 2021 GDP some 6½ percentage points lower than in the pre-COVID-19 projections of January 2020. The adverse impact on low-income households is particularly acute, imperiling the significant progress made in reducing extreme poverty in the world since the 1990s.

2          It’s Time to Rethink How You Innovate
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/time-rethink-innovate/
The intense innovation activity ignited by the global pandemic shows that some elephants can dance when they must. Companies are moving faster and taking bigger risks than could have been imagined a few months ago. A further impetus to rethinking established and cumbersome innovation approaches is the acceleration of many trends that are already underway. The lock-down has brought forward a shift to on-line work practices and team-sharing platforms while creating new opportunities.

3          Don’t Let Your Strategy Be Hijacked
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/dont-let-your-strategy-be-hijacked/
Our research explores the underlying causes of strategy hijacks, the changing nature of consumer-company dynamics, and resulting implications for leaders. Together, our findings suggest a fundamental shift in power dynamics in the realm of strategy stemming from technological and social developments that have changed how companies and customers interact. Thanks to the connectedness of social media, it’s becoming much easier for consumers to unite against companies— and thanks to the transparency of widely available data, it’s now also much easier for consumers to keep an eye on company behaviors.

4          Leaders are building new muscles to deal with the pandemic
https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Leaders-are-building-new-muscles-to-deal-with-the-pandemic?gko=7a303

And starting in May, across the many interviews I’ve been conducting with senior leaders, I’ve heard more optimism in their voices — a sense that their companies were settling into a new normal, and that for all the health and economic damage the pandemic has caused and all the uncertainty that remains, they were seeing positive developments in the cultures of their companies.

A big reason for this shift is that the practice of certain core leadership skills that everyone knows are important (yet many struggle to implement) is suddenly becoming a daily habit. Leaders are building new muscles and seeing an immediate payoff in three key areas.

5          3 Approaches to Market Research That Won’t Break the Bank
https://www.business2community.com/strategy/3-approaches-to-market-research-that-wont-break-the-bank-02321032

There is a common misconception when conducting market research that it is extremely costly. This may have been true when the industry first grew in popularity, but with the rise of technology market research has become accessible to both small businesses and Fortune 500 companies.

With marketing research, you are never short of options. Not only are there hundreds of methodologies to choose from, but there are also differences in how you approach these methods.

6          10 Best Practices For Business Intelligence Dashboards
https://www.smartdatacollective.com/10-best-practices-for-business-intelligence-dashboards/
Business intelligence (BI) dashboards are increasingly used by companies around the world. If you use one or intend to, knowing some business intelligence best practices can help you avoid pitfalls.

Here are 10 business intelligence best practices to follow as you design a dashboard and choose which information to display.

7          How Intelligent Is Your AI?
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-intelligent-is-your-ai/
In a world where buzzwords come and go, artificial intelligence has been remarkably durable. Since it first emerged as a concept in the 1950s, there has been a relatively constant flow of technologies, products, services, and companies that purport to be AI. It is quite likely that a solution you are investing in today is being referred to as AI-enabled or machine-learning-driven. But, is it really?

8          Do You Know What Your Business Is Worth? Think Again
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/know-business-worth-think/
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) noted this week that the COVID-19 pandemic has “triggered the most severe recession in nearly a century.” As a result, company valuations are plummeting, making it even more important for business owners to understand what really drives the value of their businesses.

This challenge is exacerbated as businesses continue to work through their digital transformation, a process that can cloud leaders’ understanding of where their business’ value is derived.

9          10 essential ways to evaluate Machine learning model performance
https://medium.com/@niwratti2019/10-essential-ways-to-evaluate-machine-learning-model-performance-6bf6e11f9502

The goal of a machine learning model is to learn patterns that generalize well on unseen data instead of just memorizing the data that it was trained on. When your model is ready, you would use it to predict the answer on the evaluation or test data set and then compare the predicted target to the actual answer (ground truth). This is a typical approach that is followed to evaluate model performance. However this comparison between predicted and actual values is performed based on a number of different metrics. The choice of actual metric depends on the ML problem in hand.

10        Time Complexity: How to measure the efficiency of algorithms
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/06/time-complexity-measure-efficiency-algorithms.html
In computer programming, as in other aspects of life, there are different ways of solving a problem. These different ways may imply different times, computational power, or any other metric you choose, so we need to compare the efficiency of different approaches to pick up the right one.

Now, as you may know, computers are able to solve problems based on algorithms.

Algorithms are procedures or instructions (set of steps) that tell a computer what to do and how to do it.

11        The explosion of ‘alternative’ data gives regular investors access to tools previously employed only by hedge funds
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-explosion-of-alternative-data-gives-regular-investors-access-to-tools-previously-employed-only-by-hedge-funds-2019-09-05

“Alternative data” is going mainstream as fund managers are projected to spend more than $1 billion this year to beat the market averages and stave off the rise of low-cost passive investing.

The explosive growth in the amount of alternative data sets — an array of information gleaned from the web, satellites and even consumers’ wallets — hasn’t proved to be a panacea. But what was once considered the domain of quantitatively oriented hedge funds and other well-heeled investors has become a must-have for traditional asset managers struggling to deliver market-beating returns.

12        Lyft releases new self-driving vehicle data set and launches $30,000 challenge
https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/25/lyft-releases-new-self-driving-vehicle-data-set-and-launches-30000-challenge/

Following the release of the Perception Dataset and the conclusion of its 2019 object detection competition, Lyft today shared a new corpus — the Prediction Dataset — containing the logs of movements of cars, pedestrians, and other obstacles encountered by its fleet of 23 autonomous vehicles in Palo Alto. Coinciding with this, the company plans to launch a challenge that will task entrants with predicting the motion of traffic agents.

13        The Most Powerful Thing that Improves Spreadsheet Forecasting
https://towardsdatascience.com/the-most-powerful-thing-that-improves-spreadsheet-forecasting-447d6168e5d6

I was falling asleep in one most boring project management workshops I have ever attended. The topic had turned to forecasting budgets and schedules when the instructor suddenly asked, “How many of you have ever taken a proofreading class?” No hands in the air. The next question was more rhetorical and went something like “most of you will be doing most of the time is reviewing and proofreading, yet you have never been trained in it?” It had the desired effect — over the next few years, I took several classes in proofreading textual documents, plans & specifications, and spreadsheets.

14        How to Sustain Your Organization’s Culture When Everyone Is Remote
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-to-sustain-your-organizations-culture-when-everyone-is-remote/
Within just a few weeks earlier this year, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a massive shift to remote work that may change the office as we know it forever. Many large companies are urging employees to work from home for months to come, and some CFOs are making plans to shed office real estate and permanently move some portion of their workforces to remote working.

15        Demystifying modeling: How quantitative models can–and can’t–explain the world
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/demystifying-modeling-how-quantitative-models-can-and-cant-explain-the-world

Forward-looking models aren’t new. They have long played an important but unseen role in day-to-day life—for instance, in pricing homeowners’ insurance, anticipating the weather, and deciding how many iPhones to manufacture. However, in the COVID-19 pandemic, the scale of impact and the level of uncertainty have introduced new challenges—and notoriety—for modelers.

16        Airlines leverage AI, machine learning and blockchain to save costs and generate new revenues
https://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/technology/airlines-leverage-ai-machine-learning-and-blockchain-to-save-costs-and-generate-new-revenues-255672/

Frost & Sullivan’s recent study, Analysis of the Global Airline IT Market, Forecast to 2025, finds that the increasing expectations of passengers are compelling airlines to embrace digital enablers and propelling a digital transformation journey that will fundamentally change traditional airline information technology (IT) strategies.

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 69

Friday, June 19, 2020

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 69

1          Oil tops $42 as OPEC+ laggards pledge better compliance
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKBN23Q045
Oil rose to above $42 a barrel on Friday, adding to gains in the previous session, after OPEC producers and allies promised to meet supply cuts and signs of demand, hit by the coronavirus crisis, recovering.

Iraq and Kazakhstan, during a meeting of an OPEC+ panel on Thursday, pledged to comply better with oil cuts, sources said. This means curbs by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, could deepen in July.

2          Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Higher after OPEC+ Laggards Promise to Meet Supply Cut Obligations
https://www.fxempire.com/forecasts/article/oil-price-fundamental-daily-forecast-higher-after-opec-laggards-promise-to-meet-supply-cut-obligations-656263

U.S. West Texas Intermediate and international-benchmark Brent crude oil futures are trading higher on Friday and in a position to close higher for the week after OPEC producers and allies promised to meet supply cuts and signs of demand, hit the coronavirus crisis, recovering.

At 10:46 GMT, August WTI crude oil is trading $40.03, up $0.98 or $2.51% and August Brent crude oil is at $42.40, up $0.89 or +2.14%. Both futures contracts are on pace for weekly gains of more than 9%.

3          Oil prices no longer especially cheap after strong rally
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-kemp-idUSKBN23Q1YN
Perceptions about prices tend to be over-influenced by recent experience so current prices feel very low to producers used to receiving $60-80 per barrel over the 2018/19 period.

But over a longer time horizon, current prices are not especially cheap, and are only a little below long-run averages over the last few price cycles.

4          Prospect Of Peak Oil Demand Puts Cap On Total Global Oil Reserves
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Prospect-Of-Peak-Oil-Demand-Puts-Cap-On-Total-Global-Oil-Reserves.html
The 2020 release of Rystad Energy’s annual global energy outlook reveals that the Covid-19 downturn will expedite peak oil demand, putting a lid on exploration efforts in remote offshore areas and as a result reducing the world’s recoverable oil by around 282 billion barrels.

Global total expected remaining recoverable oil resources decrease to 1,903 billion barrels, 42% of which are in OPEC territory, with the remaining 58% located outside the alliance.

5          Russian negotiator says no need to extend oil cuts beyond July:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-russia-rdif-idUSKBN23Q10J
The head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund Kirill Dmitriev sees no point in extending strict global oil output cuts as world economies and oil demand recovers from the depths of the coronavirus crisis, he told the RBC Daily newspaper.

The comments from Dmitriev, who is one of Moscow’s top negotiators in oil talks, indicate that Russia wants curbs to be eased from August as envisaged by the existing plan.

6          UBS raises Brent forecasts, sees undersupplied oil market
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-research-ubs-idUSKBN23P20D
UBS raised its forecasts on Thursday for the price of Brent crude this year, citing expectations of an undersupplied oil market as demand starts to pick up on the back of a recovering global economy.

“Supply is being curbed by OPEC+ voluntary production cuts and due to massive cuts in non-OPEC oil companies’ capital expenditures,” the bank said, as it raised its forecast for Brent to $40 per barrel by the end of September, from $32, and to $45 per barrel by the end of December, from $43.

7          Post-COVID Global Oil Demand Series – Part 1: Petrochemicals and Construction Materials
https://www.oilandgas360.com/post-covid-global-oil-demand-series-part-1-petrochemicals-and-construction-materials/
The coronavirus pandemic has ushered in a new age and as the world begins to adjust to the new normal, demand for commodities like oil and natural gas has and will continue to change. While individuals may not be traveling via airplane or driving their cars as much as before the pandemic, there are many goods and materials created from hydrocarbons that will continue to be a necessary staple for the reestablishment of a healthy global economy. Part one of our four part series on Post-COVID oil demand will investigate the change in global oil demand for petrochemicals and construction materials.

8          Prices of Volume Resins Bottom Out: Plastics Technology
https://www.ptonline.com/blog/post/prices-of-volume-resins-bottom-out
Moving toward the third quarter, prices of volume commodity resins generally appeared to have bottomed out, though there was potential for some further downward movement for PS, nylon 6 and perhaps PET. In contrast, upward movement for some resins is also likely with the return of the Chinese export market, for which a significant volume of domestic supply is dedicated. For example, 40% of domestic PE production and 30% of PVC is earmarked for export to China

9          Contraction Slows for Processors : Plastics Technology
https://www.ptonline.com/blog/post/contraction-slows-for-processors-
The Gardner Business Index for plastics processing moved up by eight points in May, registering 41.5 after setting an all-time low in April. For the first time since the government curtailed normal business operations to prevent the spread of COVID-19, all components of the Index moved towards more “normal” levels.

10        PET Resin Demand Slackens Because of COVID-19
https://www.plasticstoday.com/packaging/pet-resin-demand-slackens-because-covid-19/160394835563215
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the most commonly used plastic to package bottled water, soft drinks, and on-the-go food products, and demand for those products tends to follow a cyclical, fairly predictable pattern. For example, as temperatures begin to rise and the European summer holiday season begins, the demand for PET resin increases, writes Susan Mair, Petrochemical Analyst at Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS), in a recent article.

11        Upstream rally hits petrochemical production margins
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/petrochemicals/061820-upstream-rally-hits-petrochemical-production-margins

Rises in feedstock naphtha and steady olefins prices have caused cracker margins to fall around 25% so far in June from May’s and around 75% from March’s.

Cracker operators are now also considering shifting from 100% naphtha cracking to minimal LPG allowance as the latter becomes more profitable.

In aromatics markets, while it may be too soon to expect driving demand to return to pre-lockdown levels given long-term remote working, gasoline prices have rebounded from the lows in April.

12        The week in petrochemicals
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/petrochemicals/061520-asia-the-week-in-petrochemicals

European aromatics and methanol prices have seen only a marginal impact from slow demand recovery, and several markets are likely to continue facing high inventory pressure. “Blenders are waking up,” a toluene producer said, following a recovery in transportation fuel demand.

As Europe’s five biggest economies ease travel restriction, road traffic was nearing pre-pandemic levels in June, data from Apple mobility showed.

After hitting multi-year lows mid-March, average driving activity in the week to June 13 in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK was 96% of January 13 levels, based on direction routing requests, according to the data, up from 76% the prior week.

13        Margin squeeze hits some Asia petrochemical makers on naphtha, C2 spikes
https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2020/06/17/10519718/margin-squeeze-hits-some-asia-petrochemical-makers-on-naphtha-c2-spikes

Some petrochemical producers are hurting from a margin squeeze caused by crude-driven spikes in feedstock prices, and have resorted to cutting production as their ability to hike offers is constrained by poor demand.

Naphtha – the main feedstock for petrochemical production in Asia – has largely been tracking gains in upstream crude prices.

14        Asia-Pacific ethylene prices may lose steam
https://www.argusmedia.com/pages/NewsBody.aspx?id=2115194&menu=yes
The rally in c in the third quarter because of weakening downstream margins and a rise in long-haul import volumes.

Spot prices have risen to $830-850/t cfr northeast Asia, up by another $30-60/t from the end of last week to the highest since 4 February this year. The rally has now been sustained for an eighth consecutive week, with prices more than doubling from levels in the $300s/t cfr northeast Asia on 21 April.

15        U.S. oil inventory continues to climb, offsetting rise in fuel demand
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2020/6/18/us-oil-inventory-continues-to-climb-offsetting-rise-in-fuel-demand
Gasoline and distillate inventories fell last week, according to a report from the Energy Information Administration, reflecting a slight pick-up in demand during the summer driving season with coronavirus-led lockdowns easing in some parts of the U.S. Stubbornly high crude inventories still threaten to cap crude’s rally from historic lows in April.

“The distillate draw is a clear sign of the reopening of the economy and transportation returning,” said Rob Thummel, portfolio manager at Tortoise. “We still need to see inventories come down. That’ll be the catalyst for oil prices to move higher.”

16        Global pandemic cost oil industry 84,000+ jobs, PESA research shows
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2020/6/18/global-pandemic-cost-oil-industry-84-000plus-jobs-pesa-research-shows
Research by the Petroleum Equipment and Services Association (PESA) found that employment in the oilfield services and equipment (OFS) sector fell by nearly 15,000 jobs in May, bringing total job losses due to pandemic-related demand destruction to more than 84,000. OFS employment is down 105,000 jobs from May 2019 and now stands at its lowest point since 2016.

17        Oil and gas company Ovintiv, formerly Encana, laying off workers across North America
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ovintiv-encana-layoffs-1.5616174
Oil and gas producer Ovintiv, which moved its headquarters from Calgary to Denver last year and changed its name from Encana, says it is laying off workers across North America.

A spokeswoman for Ovintiv said the layoffs come as the company reduces its drilling activity in both Canada and the United States.

18        M&A Top and total deals revealed
https://www.offshore-technology.com/deals-analysis/oil-gas-industry-deals-in-may-2020/
The value marked a decrease of 20.4% over the previous month and a drop of 81% when compared with the last 12-month average of $21.85bn.

In terms of number of deals, the sector saw a drop of 34.4% over the last 12-month average with 120 deals against the average of 183 deals.

In value terms, North America led the activity with deals worth $2.65bn.

19        U.S. Is The Surprising Winner In China’s LNG Market
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/US-Is-The-Surprising-Winner-In-Chinas-LNG-Market.html
The natural gas market is reeling from the triple whammy of a stubborn supply overhang, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region–which accounts for nearly two-thirds of global demand–a mild winter, and a hobbled global economy. China has emerged as a rare bright spot as energy demand in the country remains relatively high. However, Beijing is taking advantage of the health and economic crisis to do a dramatic overhaul of its natural gas supply chains.

20        BP raises nearly $12 billion in first hybrid bonds issue
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bp-fundraising-bonds-idUSKBN23P1OU
BP on Wednesday raised $11.9 billion in multiple currencies, a spokeswoman told Reuters in an emailed statement, tapping for the first time hybrid bonds which place less strain on the balance sheet as the principal is not required to be repaid.

BP raised $5 billion, 4.75 billion euros ($5.34 billion) and 1.25 billion pounds ($1.56 billion) in the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom, respectively, according to data.

21        Oil Markets May Not Fully Recover Until 2022
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Oil-Markets-May-Not-Fully-Recover-Until-2022.html
Oil demand may not recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2022 at the earliest, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The surplus of crude oil sloshing around the world has narrowed quicker than expected, owing to a severe drop in supply and a quick rebound in demand in some parts of the world after a record drop in consumption.

22        Aviation crisis means oil demand to stay below pre-virus levels before 2022: IEA
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iea-oil-idUSKBN23N13B
Oil demand is recovering from the greatest fall in its history in 2020, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday, but less flying due to coronavirus fears means the world will not return to pre-pandemic demand levels before 2022.

“Our first forecast for 2021 as a whole shows demand growing by 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd), which, at 97.4 million bpd, will be 2.4 million bpd below the 2019 level,” the IEA said in its monthly report.

Recycling, Renewables and Sustainable Business 40

Friday, June 19, 2020

Recycling, Renewables and Sustainable Business 40

1          Which Is Better for the Environment — Biodegradable or Recyclable Plastic?
https://www.plasticstoday.com/recycling/which-better-environment-biodegradable-or-recyclable-plastic/57151282263224

Biodegradable plastics aren’t really good for the environment because to biodegrade they have to be left out in the open. Recycling, on the other hand, helps capture the value of certain polymers — primarily PET and HDPE, some PS and PP — but the costs of collection, sorting, and transportation involved with mechanical recycling continue to raise challenges. Two new studies from IDTechEx seek to clarify these issues.

2          For Oil, The Writing Is On The Wall: New Times Call For New Energies
https://www.forbes.com/sites/enriquedans/2020/06/18/for-oil-the-writing-is-on-the-wall-new-times-call-for-newenergies/

With the stock market capitalization of the five-biggest US oil companies slashed by half since the beginning of the year, the future is increasingly clear: although stopping oil production overnight would bring the world to a grinding halt, particularly in the transport, cement and metals industries, but as we emerge from lockdown, we must now focus on building a circular carbon economy and reduce industry’s contribution to carbon dioxide emissions.

3          Goldman: Clean Energy Investment Has Hit A Critical Point
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Goldman-Clean-Energy-Investment-Has-Hit-A-Critical-Point.html
Global investment in renewable energy is set to surpass oil and gas for the first time ever next year, according to a new report.  Trillions of dollars are slated to pour into wind, solar, batteries, EVs and green infrastructure in the coming decade. “[W]e estimate that clean tech can drive US$1-2 [trillion per year] of green infrastructure investments and create 15-20 [million] jobs worldwide,” Goldman Sachs said in a lengthy new report it calls “Carbonomics.”

4          Smart Money Is Betting On These 5 Exciting Energy Technologies
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Smart-Money-Is-Betting-On-These-5-Exciting-Energy-Technologies.html
The Covid-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow to the energy sector well beyond the fossil fuel collapse. The renewable energy industry was in full swing before the health crisis struck with 184 gigawatts (GW) of new clean energy capacity added in 2019, good for 12% Y/Y growth. Unfortunately, a short-run contraction is now expected with Morgan Stanley projecting declines of 48%, 28%, and 17% in U.S. solar photovoltaic installations during the second, third, and fourth quarters of the current year.

5          Six EU countries lead push for clean hydrogen support
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-energy-hydrogen-idUSKBN23M18G
Six European Union countries, including Germany, France and the Netherlands, have called for EU legislation and increased funding to support hydrogen, a low-carbon technology in line for cash from the bloc’s coronavirus recovery fund. The European Commission has pledged to use its proposed 750 billion euro recovery fund to support clean hydrogen – a fuel that can be produced using renewable power and which can replace fossil fuels in polluting industrial processes.

The energy ministers of Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg on Monday said this funding must be backed by legislation.

6          Enel to launch hydrogen business as part of green drive
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-enel-hydrogen-idUSKBN23Q1XN
Europe’s biggest utility Enel is set to launch a green hydrogen business next year to speed up its plans to become a carbon-free power producer by 2050.

The group is targeting markets in the United States, Chile and Spain, the head of Global Power Generation Antonio Cammisecra told Reuters. In the United States a focus will be on Texas, where the group has wind and solar assets.

7          World has six months to avert climate crisis, says energy expert
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/18/world-has-six-months-to-avert-climate-crisis-says-energy-expert

The world has only six months in which to change the course of the climate crisis and prevent a post-lockdown rebound in greenhouse gas emissions that would overwhelm efforts to stave off climate catastrophe, one of the world’s foremost energy experts has warned.

“This year is the last time we have, if we are not to see a carbon rebound,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency.

8          Plastic superhighway: the awful truth of our hidden ocean waste
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/16/plastic-knows-no-borders-the-manmade-scourge-washing-up-on-the-worlds-shores

We called the competition Who Found the Weirdest Thing? So far, the entries that day were a motorcycle helmet, a lithium battery covered with scary stickers asking that we return it to the military, and a toy dinosaur.

The dinosaur was warm from the sun and starting to degrade. The ocean had smoothed and worn down its edges. Rocks and sand had crosshatched its skin. It was missing a hind leg. On one side it was dark grey; the sun had bleached its opposite flank white.

9          Cotton fibres, microplastics pervade Eastern Arctic, study finds
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/eastern-arctic-microplastics-nu-1.5617223
Chelsea Rochman wasn’t surprised when her research cruise through Canada’s Eastern Arctic showed tiny plastic shards and other human debris in nearly every bucket she hauled aboard.

What puzzled her was the colour. The answer changed the way she looks at her wardrobe.

“Some of the particles that we sampled weren’t microplastics,”

10        Tesla cracks 400 mile range barrier for Model S as world waits for battery update
https://thedriven.io/2020/06/17/tesla-cracks-400-mile-range-barrier-for-model-s-as-world-waits-for-battery-update/
As the world of electric vehicles hangs on news of a Tesla battery update, the Californian electric car maker has taken time out to explain how it has cracked the 400 mile barrier with its Tesla Model S.

On Monday (US time), Tesla was finally able to officially confirm that the Model S has been rated for 402 miles (647km) by the US-based Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

11        RWE, German LNG to explore hydrogen opportunities
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/rwe-german-lng-to-explore-hydrogen/
RWE and German LNG Terminal have agreed to jointly explore the development of green hydrogen possibilities via the planned LNG terminal in Brunsbüttel.

To this end, the two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to promote the use of hydrogen produced from renewable sources.

In September 2018, both companies had already signed a long-term agreement for a considerable part of the planned terminal’s LNG import capacity.

12        Lyft promises switch to 100% electric vehicles by 2030
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lyft-electricvehicles-idUSKBN23O37R
Ride-hailing company Lyft Inc (LYFT.O) on Wednesday said every vehicle on its ride-hailing and rental car platform will be electric by 2030, but it would not provide direct financial support to drivers for switching from gas-powered cars.

Instead, the company plans to push competitors, lawmakers and automakers to make it easier for drivers to switch to electric vehicles by creating financial incentives, Lyft executives said during a call.

13        Unilever’s brands to invest €1 billion in new dedicated Climate & Nature Fund
https://www.britishplastics.co.uk/News/unilever%E2%80%99s-brands-will-collectively-invest-%E2%82%AC1-billion-in-a-n/

Unilever’s brands will collectively invest €1 billion in a new dedicated Climate & Nature Fund.

This will be used over the next ten years to take meaningful and decisive action, with projects likely to include landscape restoration, reforestation, carbon sequestration, wildlife protection and water preservation.

Unilever aims to achieve Net Zero emissions from all its products by 2039

14        BlackRock Leads $50M Investment into Off-Grid Solar Technology that Generates Water
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/blackrock-leads-50-million-investment-in-off-grid-solar-technology-that-makes-water

A cleantech startup announced this week that it has raised $50 million to scale distributed solar technology — but not for electricity production.

Zero Mass Water creates boxy solar panels that generate flows of pure, potable water instead of electrons. It offers access to safe water for homes or businesses in arid parts of the world, or places with unsafe tap water. That need is set to grow as climate change dries out regions and alters weather patterns.

15        Climate crisis: alarm at record-breaking heatwave in Siberia
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/17/climate-crisis-alarm-at-record-breaking-heatwave-in-siberia
A prolonged heatwave in Siberia is “undoubtedly alarming”, climate scientists have said. The freak temperatures have been linked to wildfires, a huge oil spill and a plague of tree-eating moths.

On a global scale, the Siberian heat is helping push the world towards its hottest year on record in 2020, despite a temporary dip in carbon emissions owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

16        Nearly US$1T in investments by 2030 as power sector transitions to a decarbonized system
https://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/environment-and-safety/nearly-us1t-in-investments-by-2030-as-power-sector-transitions-to-a-decarbonized-and-flexible-system-255461/

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, Growth Opportunities in Distributed Energy, Forecast to 2030, finds that the rate of annual investment in distributed energy resources (DER) will increase by 75% by 2030, with the market set for a decade of high growth.

Favorable regulations, declining project and technology costs, and high electricity and demand charges are key factors driving investments in DER across the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic will reduce investment levels in the short term, but the market will recover.

17        VW starts using first LNG-powered car carrier
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/vw-starts-using-first-lng-powered-car-carrier/
German giant Volkswagen Group is to send the first LNG-fuelled vessel it chartered from Siem Car Carriers on its maiden voyage.

The Siem Confucius is the first of two vessels built at China’s Xiamen Shipbuilding yard which will replace Volkswagen’s conventional heavy oil-powered ships.

The car freighter will leave Germany’s port of Emden on Tuesday with more than 4,800 new vehicles on board, according to Volkswagen.

18        California To Fight Wildfires With Microgrids And Batteries
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2020/06/16/california-energy-regulators-want-to-fight-wildfires-by-facilitating-more-microgrids-and-energy-storage/

California is the national leader when it comes to addressing climate change and facilitating the use of renewable energies and green technologies. But the concern is that utilities would rely too much on fossil fuels. Beyond that, the worry is that the process would unfold too slowly, all in the context that faulty utility equipment has led to numerous fires — not good with wildfire season coming up in September.

19        Special Report on Sustainable Recovery IEA – International Energy Agency
https://www.iea.org/
The International Energy Agency is today presenting a Sustainable Recovery Plan focusing on a series of actions that can be taken over the next three years to revitalise economies and boost employment while making energy systems cleaner and more resilient.

Set out in a Special Report on Sustainable Recovery from the IEA’s flagship World Energy Outlook series, the plan offers an energy sector roadmap for governments to spur economic growth, create millions of jobs and put global emissions into structural decline. By integrating energy policies into government responses to the economic shock caused by the Covid-19 crisis, the plan would also accelerate the deployment of modern, reliable and clean energy technologies and infrastructure.

Business Intelligence and Analytics 69

Friday, June 19, 2020

Business Intelligence and Analytics 69

1          The Three Essentials of B2B Digital Transformation
https://knowledge.insead.edu/strategy/the-three-essentials-of-b2b-digital-transformation-14406
The most common question we hear is, “Where do I start?” The answer is, “Where it makes the most sense from a customer’s point of view.”

Today we are witnessing a profound shift in how B2B leaders use digital to consume information, make informed buying decisions and engage with suppliers. Covid-19 has accelerated this shift, which will not abate when the pandemic recedes. Although the shift is easy to see, addressing it isn’t straightforward.

2          The Recession’s Impact on Analytics and Data Science
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-recessions-impact-on-analytics-and-data-science/
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is having a dramatic negative impact on economies in the U.S. and worldwide, and unemployment rates are soaring. Given the economic disruptions, it seems likely that many countries in the global economy will experience a recession.

Organizations are beginning to grapple with how the economic slowdown will influence investments they are making across the board. One question we wonder about is whether the demand for analytics and data science resources will remain heavy or slow down.

3          Why Sharing Good News Matters
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/why-sharing-good-news-matters/
Research shows us that even in normal times, constant exposure to negative newscan have a heavy impact on our mental health. In the midst of an unprecedented health and humanitarian crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, people are not only faced with new challenges in their work and personal lives but also subjected to a constant barrage of troubling headlines.

4          How leading innovators are pulling farther ahead
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-innovation-commitment

Seven years ago, we unveiled research highlighting the existence of innovation’s eight “essentials”—a collection of attributes and behaviors that appeared to underpin superior innovation performance. 1 Since then, we’ve validated the essentials through further research and seen them in action at hundreds of companies. This work has deepened our conviction that not only do the essentials matter but also that mastering them is critical to survival at a time when transformational growth is needed to defend against disruptive rivals

5          The eight essentials of innovation
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-eight-essentials-of-innovation

Since innovation is a complex, company-wide endeavor, it requires a set of crosscutting practices and processes to structure, organize, and encourage it. Taken together, the essentials described in this article constitute just such an operating system, as seen in Exhibit 2. These often overlapping, iterative, and nonsequential practices resist systematic categorization but can nonetheless be thought of in two groups.

6          Collective Intelligence and the Data Driven Organization
http://www.datavirtualizationblog.com/collective-intelligence-and-the-data-driven-organization/
Collective intelligence draws on collaboration between individuals. It exploits their singularities, raises them to power, and creates, in the end, a real holistic system, much more valuable than the sum of its parts. Collective intelligence provides value for all, and it is not a framework for comparing individuals, or even worse, for discriminating against them. Collective intelligence gives strength to differences, distilling from each individual the contributions which then become food for the collective.

7          U.S. weekly jobless claims remain high as second wave of layoffs hits industries
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-idUSKBN23P0G2
A second wave of layoffs amid weak demand and fractured supply chains is keeping new U.S. applications for unemployment benefits elevated, supporting views that the economy faces a long and difficult recovery from the COVID-19 recession.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 1.508 million for the week ended June 13, down from 1.566 million in the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The 11th straight weekly drop pushed claims further away from a record 6.867 million in late March.

8          Adapt or Fall: Why Darwin’s Ideas Still Matter to Modern Businesses
https://www.business2community.com/strategy/adapt-or-fall-why-darwins-ideas-still-matter-to-modern-businesses-02320346

Today the commonly accepted conclusion of Charles Darwin’s seminal work, The Origin of Species, is that the bedrock of evolution is “survival of the fittest.” In actuality, this interpretation represents a morphing of what Darwin proclaimed centuries earlier. His key theory was that evolution favored the survival of the most adaptable, not the fittest. The distinction is subtle yet profound, and particularly relevant when thinking about businesses since the onslaught of COVID-19.

9          Clustering How it Works (in Plain English!)
https://blog.dataiku.com/clustering-how-it-works-in-plain-english
There are several methods of unsupervised learning, but clustering is far and away the most commonly used unsupervised learning technique, and will be the focus of this article. Clustering refers to the process of automatically grouping together data points with similar characteristics and assigning them to “clusters.”

10        The Most Important Fundamentals of PyTorch you Should Know
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/06/fundamentals-pytorch.html
Since it was introduced by the Facebook AI Research (FAIR) team, back in early 2017, PyTorch has become a highly popular and widely used Deep Learning (DL) framework. Since the humble beginning, it has caught the attention of serious AI researchers and practitioners around the world, both in industry and academia, and has matured significantly over the years.

11        Time Series in 5-Minutes, Part 2: Autocorrelation and Cross Correlation
https://www.r-bloggers.com/time-series-in-5-minutes-part-2-autocorrelation-and-cross-correlation/
Have 5-minutes? Then let’s learn time series. In this short articles series, I highlight how you can get up to speed quickly on important aspects of time series analysis. Today we are focusing on a critical visualization technique: Autocorrelation and Cross Correlation. Learn how to make interactive (plotly) and static (ggplot2) visualizations easily with timetk.

12        U.S. senators unveil bill to curb foreign espionage, influence on campuses
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-education-idUSKBN23P1M5
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators unveiled legislation on Thursday aimed at protecting research and innovation on U.S. campuses and prevent suspected theft of intellectual property by China and other countries.

The bill comes amid a growing push in Washington to clamp down on spying and intellectual property theft that some Chinese nationals are suspected of engaging in on U.S. university and college campuses.

13        Is FEAR or F.E.A.R Holding You Back?
https://copyblogger.com/f-e-a-r/
Fear is an emotional response to an actual threat, and it’s a fundamental survival mechanism that’s served us well throughout human history. When you’re in immediate danger, fear tells you to get yourself to someplace safer.

Once our ancestors saw a few friends and relatives devoured by lions, fearing lions became a smart move. Nowadays we react in a similarly legitimate fashion when faced with an AR-15, a car veering toward us, or a new track from Justin Bieber.

14        Crashing U.S. Auto Sales: Can the Industry Recover?
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/crashing-auto-sales-can-the-industry-recover/
While sales of products like toilet paper, hand sanitizer even home appliances have skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic, auto sales have experienced the opposite. Through March, April and May, total vehicle sales in the United States fell to levels not seen since the Great Recession a decade ago. Demand crashed as millions of commuters suddenly found themselves working from home or laid off, and consumers responded predictably to the economic uncertainty by putting off expensive purchases such as new cars, trucks and SUVs.

15        How to Create a Positive Work Culture in 2020?
https://www.business2community.com/workplace-culture/how-to-create-a-positive-work-culture-in-2020-02319693
Before talking about how to create a positive work culture, it is essential to remind ourselves what is it and why is it so essential.

Work culture is the environment and atmosphere created for the employees to work. It has a significant role in determining their job satisfaction, relationships, career advancement, and a sense of belonging at work. It is a mix of the organization’s values, traditions, beliefs, leadership, intercommunications, responses, and emotions that contribute to the emotional and relational environment of the workplace.

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 68

Friday, June 12, 2020

Energy Petrochemicals and Plastics 68

1          Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Stock Market Rebound Fueling Recovery from Early Lows
https://www.fxempire.com/forecasts/article/oil-price-fundamental-daily-forecast-stock-market-rebound-fueling-recovery-from-early-lows-654895

U.S. West Texas Intermediate and international-benchmark Brent crude oil futures are trading nearly flat after clawing back earlier losses. The rebound is likely being fueled by profit-taking and position-squaring ahead of the weekend. A slight recovery in demand for risky assets after a steep sell-off on Thursday could also be contributing to the technical bounce.

2          Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast
https://www.fxempire.com/forecasts/article/natural-gas-price-fundamental-daily-forecast-rangebound-as-renewed-coronavirus-fears-cap-gains-654918

Natural gas futures are edging lower on Friday shortly before the regular session opening as investors weigh the impact of the latest storage report against continued forecasts calling for more heat in June. Some traders are blaming the fear of a second outbreak of coronavirus on the early selling pressure. A second wave of COVID-19 would be devastating to demand.

3          Weekly Resin Report: Recovery in Full Swing at Trading Desk
https://www.plasticstoday.com/resin-pricing/weekly-resin-report-recovery-full-swing-trading-desk/125370657163180

Judging solely by trading activity in the resin market, it would appear that our economy is taking strong steps to put COVID-19 behind us, as a recovery is in full swing. The flow of offers remained reduced and prices for polyethylene (PE) moved higher, while polypropylene (PP) held steady last week, according to the PlasticsExchange.

4          It’s The Oil Demand, Stupid! But Add Uncertainty To The Mix!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thebakersinstitute/2020/06/10/its-the-oil-demand-stupid-but-add-uncertainty-to-the-mix/

For oil markets the 2020 story is not as much about supply as it is about demand, or rather it’s lack. To be sure the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia rocked the markets. But soon it became clear that there is not enough demand for the additional volumes that either country wanted to produce. Hence, the relatively quick end to a Russia/OPEC standoff.

5          The IEA expects global gas demand to fall
https://www.argusmedia.com/pages/NewsBody.aspx?id=2113017&menu=yes
Europe will account for over a quarter of the projected fall in global gas consumption this year from 2019, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) said.

The IEA expects global gas demand to fall by 150bn m³ in 2020 from a year earlier because of the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. This 4pc decline would be the largest since the gas market developed at scale in the second half of last century, and double the 2pc fall in 2009 over the previous financial crisis, the IEA said.

6          Goldman Sachs expects oil rally to run out of steam soon
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-research-goldman-idUSKBN23G0JN
Oil prices are likely to pull back in the coming weeks due to the uncertain path of future demand and a “daunting” inventory overhang, Goldman Sachs said in a note dated Monday.

“The collapse in (refining) margins to unprecedented lows is reflective of both over-valued crude prices as well as a more moderate demand recovery, two pillars of our short-term bearish view,” the Wall Street bank said.

7          The pandemic and a mild winter have delivered a historic shock to the global natural gas market
https://www.bicmagazine.com/industry/natgas-lng/the-pandemic-and-a-mild-winter-have-delivered-a-historic-sho/

The combination of the Covid-19 crisis and an exceptionally mild winter in the northern hemisphere have put global demand for natural gas on course for its largest annual decline in history, the International Energy Agency said today in a new report. Global gas demand is expected to fall by 4%, or 150 billion cubic metres (bcm) – twice the size of the drop following the 2008 global financial crisis.

8          U.S. crude stocks bloated by aftermath of volume war
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-global-kemp-idUSKBN23I22S
U.S. petroleum inventories climbed again last week to a record 2.1 billion barrels, mostly as a result of rapid crude imports, with an unusually large volume again arriving from Saudi Arabia.

Once the extra tankers loaded at the height of the Saudi-Russian volume war have finished discharging, which should be within the next week or two, U.S. crude stocks should stabilise.

9          Packaging demand supports European petrochemicals, challenges persist
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/petrochemicals/061120-factbox-packaging-demand-supports-european-petrochemicals-challenges-persist

European petrochemical markets remain volatile with ongoing uncertainty around demand recovery as COVID-19 lockdowns begin to ease. Some petrochemicals have fared better than others during the pandemic, with plastics used for food and pharmaceutical applications finding support while those exposed to the automotive and construction sectors have struggled.

10        Plastics Processing Business Continued Contracting in April
https://www.ptonline.com/blog/post/plastics-processing-business-continues-contracting-in-april-
Gardner Intelligence’s Plastics Processing Business Index experienced unprecedented deceleration of most measures of business activity for the month. April’s reading of 33.4 was more than 10-points below both the prior month’s low and the previous cyclical low of 2015. Survey data provided by only custom processors was little better, with a monthly reading of 34.1.

11        Moving Toward Third Quarter, Prices of All Volume Commodity Resins Appear to Have Bottomed Out: Plastics Technology
https://www.ptonline.com/blog/post/moving-toward-third-quarter-prices-of-all-volume-commodity-resins-appear-to-have-bottomed-out

As we approach the third quarter, prices of all nice volume commodity resins appeared to have bottomed out generally. Still, there might be some further downward pressure for resins such as PS, nylon 6 and PET, while there is upward pressure for PE and possibly PVC with the return of the Chinese export market along with higher feedstock costs.

12        Early Signs of an Upturn from the Great Economic Disruption?
https://www.plasticsindustry.org/Great-Economic-Disruption-2020
The unemployment rate in May can be viewed from two angles.  May job numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates show that the U.S. employment rate fell to 13.3% in May following the 14.7% rate in April. On one hand, it is noteworthy that the unemployment rate stopped increasing in May. On the other hand, it is still significantly above the 3.5% rate in February and 4.4% in March. The US economy enjoyed unemployment rates at or below 4.0% since March 2018. As Americans grew accustomed to a strong labor market, double-digit unemployment rates in two consecutive months cause consternation to some.

13        Oil prices slump 8% as virus-related demand concerns resurface
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKBN23I02D
Oil prices tumbled about 8% a barrel on Thursday, fuelled by renewed concerns about demand destruction as new cases of coronavirus tick up globally, while crude inventories hit a record in the United States.

U.S. coronavirus cases surpassed 2 million on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, and new infections are rising slightly after five weeks of declines. While most states have loosened restrictions on movement that shackled demand, fuel consumption remains 20% below typical levels, as consumers remain cautious.

14        Latin American oil exports to USGC see small gains
https://blogs.platts.com/2020/06/11/latin-american-crude-exports-usgc-coronavirus/
Latin American countries, excluding Venezuela and Argentina, have slightly increased crude exports to the US Gulf Coast market in 2020 to date, despite fierce competition from Canadian and Middle East producers.

In the first five months of 2020, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil and Guyana exported a total of 148 million barrels of crude to refineries located in the US Gulf Coast, US Customs Bureau and S&P Global Platts Analytics data showed. That was up 1.3% from 146 million barrels recorded in the same period of 2019.

15        Mexican Oil Major Pemex Slashes Thousands Of Jobs In Oilfield Services
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Mexican-Oil-Major-Pemex-Slashes-Thousands-Of-Jobs-In-Oilfield-Services.html

Mexico’s oil major Pemex has begun suspending oilfield service contracts, effectively eliminating several thousand jobs, unnamed sources from the industry told Bloomberg.

The move, which aims to cut Pemex’s costs, has so far involved at least eight Mexican and international oilfield service providers and suppliers, according to the Bloomberg sources. Most of these were involved in offshore field servicing.

16        Oil Traders Lose Asian Forum as APPEC Goes Virtual
https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/oil_traders_lose_asian_forum_as_appec_goes_virtual-11-jun-2020-162374-article/

Fortunes have been made — and lost — in the oil market this year on an unprecedented scale, but it looks like the world’s traders will have to forgo their last chance to get together and celebrate or commiserate.

That’s because S&P Global Platts, the organizer of Singapore’s Annual Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference, just announced that it’s going to hold the event virtually because of the coronavirus.

17        ConocoPhillips CEO Sees Shale Comeback
https://www.rigzone.com/news/conocophillips_ceo_sees_shale_comeback-10-jun-2020-162354-article/
U.S. shale development is dramatically less robust than it used to be, but ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance clearly is not ready to declare the shale era over.

“I don’t think shale’s gone,” Lance told IHS Markit Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin in a June 4 interview. “I don’t think anybody says that. There’s going to be some very low-cost to supply shale resource and they still exist in the United States. We have a lot of that in our own company as well – reserves and resources that we will come back to, putting rigs back to work, putting frack spreads back to work and investing in growth again in shale.”

18        Bulls Beware: A Dark Cloud Is Forming Over Oil Markets
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Bulls-Beware-A-Dark-Cloud-Is-Forming-Over-Oil-Markets.html
Bullish sentiment appears to have returned to the stock markets with a vengeance. In a historic rally that has taken even die-hard bulls by surprise, the S&P 500 has managed to claw back all of its 2020 losses, taking just 53 sessions for the index to fully restore the nearly $10T in value it shed in an epic bear market. The oil markets have been nearly as impressive.

19        Russia’s Transneft reports 13% rise in quarterly net income
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-transneft-results-idUSKBN23I1EN
Russia’s oil pipeline monopoly Transneft (TRNF_p.MM) reported on Thursday a 13% increase in first-quarter net earnings year on year to 56.7 billion roubles ($822 million) due to higher sales.

Transneft’s revenues in January-March edged up 1.3% to 263.3 billion roubles.

The company also said it had paid 4.9 billion roubles ($71 million) to oil suppliers in the first quarter as compensation for oil contamination in April 2019.

20        Shell launches sale of stakes in Norwegian fields, pipelines
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shell-m-a-norway-idUSKBN23I1YX
Royal Dutch Shell has launched the sale of its stakes in two oilfields and two pipelines in Norway, according to a sales document seen by Reuters.

Shell is selling its 6.45% interest in the Kvitebjorn field and pipeline and its 3.225% interest in the Valemon Unit and Valemon Rich Gas Pipeline, according to the document.

21        Trump uses oil diplomacy, executive orders to aid US producers
https://blogs.platts.com/2020/06/10/trump-us-oil-diplomacy-executive-orders-producers/
Perhaps the biggest aid to the sector was Trump’s involvement in the March talks between Saudi Arabia and Russia to end their oil supply brinkmanship that was hammering oil prices already beset by freefalling demand. The OPEC+ leaders eventually agreed to cut oil supply by nearly 10 million b/d through at least June.

“We saved the energy industry,” Trump boasted at a June 5 White House briefing, referring to the OPEC+ talks. “That would have been catastrophic to lose it, and now [oil prices are] up to almost $40/b. People would have said that’s impossible, but we got Saudi Arabia, Russia and others to cut back very substantially.”

22        Ethylene prices in Asia-Pacific
https://www.argusmedia.com/pages/NewsBody.aspx?id=2113113&menu=yes
Ethylene prices in Asia-Pacific are continuing to rise, crossing the $800/t cfr northeast Asia mark this week, supported by tight supply availability and recovering downstream demand.

Prices in the region have risen for a seventh consecutive week, reversing most of the losses incurred since the Covid-19 outbreak began in late January.

23        EIA expects 2020 summer U.S. electricity demand to be lowest since 2009
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44055
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects U.S. electricity demand to total 998 billion kilowatthours this summer (June through August), the lowest level of summer electricity consumption in the United States since 2009 and 5% less than last summer.

24        Demand Doubles for Some Used Plastics Processing Equipment
https://www.plasticstoday.com/blow-molding/demand-doubles-some-used-plastics-processing-equipment/181096375063162

Used machines are helping plastic and liquid processors serve society during the coronavirus crisis, with demand for used plastic processing machinery doubling in some cases. Used machinery company MachinePoint, based in Valladolid, Spain, noted in a release that “never in our history has the world had to react at the same time against a common threat.”

25        Petrochemical Index plunges to November 2003 level
https://www.britishplastics.co.uk/News/icis-global-petrochemical-index-plunges-to-november-2003-lev/
As the impact of the falling oil price and coronavirus-driven demand destruction slammed the sector, the ICIS Petrochemical Index (IPEX) plunged in April.

The global index stands at a level last seen in November 2003 and is just below that in January 2009.

As petrochemical and plastic prices fell across the board, each of the regional components of the global index fell sharply month on month.

26        Saudi oil market share set to hit highest since 1980s: J.P. Morgan
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-saudi-jpmorgan-idUSKBN23J1MB
Saudi Arabia’s share of the oil market is set to rise this decade to its highest since the 1980s as investment in production elsewhere dries up in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, J.P. Morgan said in a report.

Recycling, Renewables and Sustainable Business 39

Friday, June 12, 2020

Recycling Renewables and Sustainable Business 39

1          Global EV Market: Already on the Road to Recovery?
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/global-ev-market-on-the-road-to-recovery
The combination of a pandemic, supply-chain disruptions, economywide lockdowns and a worldwide recession is bad news for virtually every industry, and the electric vehicle sector is no exception. Add a historic decline in oil prices making fossil fuels cheaper at the pump, and 2020 is shaping up to be an especially rough year for the plug-in car market.

2          Falling Clean Energy Costs Can Provide Opportunity to Boost Climate Action in COVID-19 Recovery Packages
https://about.bnef.com/blog/falling-clean-energy-costs-can-provide-opportunity-to-boost-climate-action-in-covid-19-recovery-packages/

As COVID-19 hits the fossil fuel industry, a new report shows that renewable energy is more cost-effective than ever – providing an opportunity to prioritize clean energy in economic recovery packages and bring the world closer to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2020 — from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre and BloombergNEF (BNEF), available at www.fs-unep-centre.org — analyzes 2019 investment trends, and clean energy commitments made by countries and corporations for the next decade.

3          Carbon accounting for beginners
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/06/11/carbon-accounting-for-beginners/
A new report from Rocky Mountain Institute in the U.S. explores the need for companies to disclose information about greenhouse gas emissions throughout their supply chains, and the most effective ways to do this whilst ensuring consistency and comparability of collected data across multiple industries.

4          Tetra Pak commits to net zero emissions & recycled materials
https://www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/markets/drinks/tetra-pak-commits-net-zero-emissions-recycled-materials-11-06-2020

The carton packaging giant is aiming to reach net zero GHG across the value chain by 2050, and is also aiming to produce a fully recyclable package made solely from renewable or recycled materials as well as to offer processing and packaging lines with minimal carbon footprint.

5          Total joins shipping decarbonization movement
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/total-joins-shipping-decarbonization-movement/
The company intends to contribute to the goal by collaborating with companies across the maritime, energy, infrastructure and finance sectors.

The Getting to Zero Coalition’s ambition is to help achieve the target set by the International Maritime Organisation to reduce Greenhouse Gases emissions from shipping by at least 50% by 2050 – compared to 2008 levels.

6          Zinc Highly Effective Against Viruses on Plastic Surfaces
https://www.plasticstoday.com/covid-19/zinc-highly-effective-against-viruses-on-plastic-surfaces/113586495063189

Technology that makes polymers resistant to bacteria, molds, and biofilm by making use of a trace element has been developed by Parx Materials, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Inspired by the defense mechanism of the human skin is protecting against germs and viruses, that element is zinc. Parx Materials is integrating into polymers that are then have a 99.9% or higher antimicrobial performance of 99.9%.

7          Solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity in mainland Spain surpassed coal-fired
https://www.argusmedia.com/pages/NewsBody.aspx?id=2113565&menu=yes
Solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity in mainland Spain surpassed coal-fired capacity last month after doubling in just one year, data released by power grid operator REE show.

Installed solar PV capacity rose by 378MW month on month to reach 9.276GW at the end of May, up from 8.898GW in April. This was the fastest capacity addition for solar PV so far this year.

8          Melting Permafrost Claims Its First Major Victim, Russia’s Oil & Gas Network
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/06/09/melting-permafrost-claims-its-first-major-victim-russias-oil-gas-network/

Siberia is a pretty popular place lately. It was already in the news a couple of weeks ago because temperatures rose to record highs. This past week a different disaster took place there, a major oil spill.

We have covered melting permafrost in the past. The CO2 and methane gas being released by melting permafrost is already reason enough to make this topic a priority, but it is as detrimental to the people and infrastructure there in the short term as it is for the planet in the long term.

9          Plunging Renewable Energy Prices Mean U.S. Can Hit 90% Clean Electricity By 2035
https://www.forbes.com/sites/energyinnovation/2020/06/09/plunging-renewable-energy-prices-mean-us-can-hit-90-clean-electricity-by-2035at-no-extra-cost/

Renewable energy has historically been considered too expensive and too unreliable to power our grid, but new research has overturned that trope for good. Plummeting wind, solar, and storage prices have fallen so fast that the United States can reach 90% clean electricity by 2035 – without raising customer costs at all from today’s levels, and actually decreasing wholesale power costs 10%.

10        Three Ways That Covid-19 is Impacting The Biofuels Sector
https://about.bnef.com/blog/three-ways-that-covid-19-is-impacting-the-biofuels-sector/
The Covid-19 pandemic has sent a shockwave through the global oil industry, which, along with the subsequent oil prices shock, has created a unique set of challenges for the biofuels sector.

BloombergNEF has identified three ways in which Covid-19 and the oil price shock are disrupting biofuels:

11        Putin’s anger over environmental damage may drive modern reforms
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2020/6/11/putin-s-anger-over-environmental-damage-may-drive-modern-reforms

The mishandling of the biggest Arctic oil spill ever infuriated Russian President Vladimir Putin and could be the catalyst for adoption of modern environmental regulations.

MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC, Russia’s biggest miner, didn’t make a public statement until two days after the May 29 accident, which leaked over 20,000 tons (150,000 barrels) of diesel into a fragile Arctic river system.

12        Oil Infrastructure Operators Grapple With A New Energy Reality
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Oil-Infrastructure-Operators-Grapple-With-A-New-Energy-Reality.html

Unusual as it may be for an oil pipeline operator to invest in renewable energy, the case for investing in clean energy has never been stronger, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Thanks to a decade of declining costs, renewable power has become increasingly cheaper than any new electricity capacity based on fossil fuels, IRENA said in a report earlier this month.

13        Tesla Set to Get CATL’s Revolutionary Million-Mile Batteries
https://www.energytrend.com/news/20200610-18110.html
Tesla’s battery supplier CATL has shared with Bloomberg that it can now provide the million-mile batteries with life-span of 16 years to the market. This technological breakthrough could be the key to unlock the explosive EV market growth.

In an interview with Bloomberg, the chairman of Tesla’s major battery supplier CATL, Zeng Yuqun, has announced that the company is ready to make Elon Musk’s dream come true: the million-mile batteries

“If someone places an order, we are ready to produce.” said CATL

14        German government agrees on national hydrogen strategy
https://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/environment-and-safety/german-government-agrees-on-national-hydrogen-strategy-255110/

The German government agreed on a long-term strategy for increasing production and use of hydrogen as part of a plan to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

While hydrogen is currently produced almost exclusively from fossil fuels, the government wants to encourage its production from excess electricity generated by renewable energy sources.

15        Implementing standards in floating PV
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/06/09/implementing-standards-in-floating-pv/
Norway-based consultancy DNV GL has created a new consortium aimed at defining standards and recommended practices for the floating PV business.

The Floating Solar joint industry project (JIP) consortium comprises big European energy companies such as Portugal’s EDP, France’s EDF and Norway’s Equinor, as well as German project developer BayWa r.e, Engie unit Compagnie Nationale du Rhône, UK-based independent power producer Mainstream Renewable Power and Norwegian solar developer Scatec Solar, among others.

16        Investors Step Up Pressure On Companies That Don’t Disclose Environmental Risks
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikescott/2020/06/09/investors-step-up-pressure-on-companies-that-dont-disclose-environmental-risks/

Investors are becoming increasingly assertive and sophisticated in holding companies to account on environmental issues – and it is producing results.

Some 1,051 companies from 49 countries, including ExxonMobil, Facebook and Domino’s Pizza, have been asked to disclose environmental data under the Non-Disclosure Campaign organised by CDP, the non-profit global environmental disclosure platform.

17        UK firms break into Chinese renewable energy market
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/uk-firms-break-into-chinese-renewable-energy-market/
Eight UK organisations have signed new agreements to develop and provide renewable energy technologies, services and research in China.

Aleron Group, Miros Scotland, ZOEX Wave Power, along with Logan Energy, REOptimize Systems, Anakata Wind Power and Blueprint Subsea signed memorandums of understanding during a virtual ceremony hosted in Yantai City, Shandong province.

18        Can Microsoft Halt Climate Change With Its Carbon Negative Plan?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-06-04/can-microsoft-halt-climate-change-with-its-carbon-negative-plan

Over the past four years, Lucas Joppa, Microsoft Corp.’s 37-year-old chief environmental officer, has dislocated and broken one shoulder, separated the other one, broken his right wrist, and also broken his left thumb. In early May he was pretty sure his right thumb was broken, but his hand surgeon said it was a torn ligament. It’s not that he’s clumsy or reckless—he calculates that, given the amount of time he spends on a bike or skis, his “error rate” is about 0.08%—it’s just that he has a tendency not to look before he jumps.

19        Wind Energy Investment To Overtake Oil & Gas In 2022 In Europe
https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Wind-Energy-Investment-To-Overtake-Oil-Gas-In-2022-In-Europe.html

The oil market collapse caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is set to delay several oil and gas developments in Western Europe, putting capital expenditure in the offshore sector on a continued downwards trajectory through 2022. In light of the postponement of multiple final investment decisions (FIDs) on projects and lower investments in offshore oil and gas, coupled with increasing activity in the offshore wind sector, Rystad Energy expects that the two markets will reach parity as soon as next year. We anticipate that capital expenditure (capex) on offshore wind will surpass upstream O&G spending in Europe in 2022.

20        Coal production to drop 25% in 2020 as solar expected to grow 33%: EIA, SEIA
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/coal-production-to-drop-25-in-2020-as-solar-expected-to-grow-33-eia-sei/579674/

Coal production is anticipated to fall 25% in 2020 due to slowed industrial production under the current economic recession, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s short-term outlook released on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. solar market hit a record in Q1 of this year, installing 3.6 GW, according to a Thursday report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie. Though overall installations are expected to fall in 2020 compared to 2019, utility-scale solar’s strong performance is expected to boost the sector’s growth by 33% this year, SEIA and WoodMac found.

21        Global new clean energy investment totaled $282 billion last year
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-renewables-investment-idUSKBN23H281
Global investment in new clean energy capacity rose 1% last year to $282.2 billion, research by UNEP, Bloomberg New Energy Finance and the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre showed on Wednesday.

The United States invested $55.5 billion in 2019, up 28% from the year before as onshore wind developers rushed to take advantage of tax credits before their expected expiry, the report said.

Europe financed $54.6 billion, down 7% from 2018.

22        Scrub that: Pandemic forces ship owners to shelve anti-pollution gear
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-imo-shipping-scrubbers-focus-idUSKBN23J0SW
Ship owners are postponing or cancelling the installation of “scrubbers” that extract harmful sulphur emissions from their vessels as the coronavirus pandemic tightens finances.

The rules aimed to make ships use fuel with a sulphur content of 0.5%, compared with 3.5% previously. Operators had the alternative option to install devices – scrubbers – to strip out the pollutant, which causes lung problems among humans and contributes to acidification of oceans and acid rain, but has not been directly linked to climate change like carbon.

Business Intelligence and Analytics 68

Friday, June 12, 2020

Business Intelligence and Analytics 68

1          How to Build a Partner Marketing Strategy for Brand Collaboration
https://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/partner-marketing-strategy/
Partner marketing, also referred to as partnership marketing, involves two brands collaborating to promote each other’s products and services. It’s a great way for brands that have complementary interests to find support and benefit from each other’s reach and resources.

When we think of partner marketing, it often elicits images of famous collaborations like Doritos and Taco Bell (Doritos Locos Tacos) or Nike and Apple, but brands of all sizes and industries can benefit from joint marketing efforts.

2          Leaders Must Have the Courage to Choose the Future
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/leaders-must-have-the-courage-to-choose-the-future/
In December 2007, Shantanu Narayen took over as the CEO of Adobe. The timing seemingly could not have been worse: Not only did Narayen and his team have to confront disruptive developments such as the rise of new platforms like the iPhone and the emergence of nimble software-as-a-service (SaaS) competitors, they had to do so in the midst of a financial crisis that upended markets around the globe.

3          Making the new normal work
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/from-thinking-about-the-next-normal-to-making-it-work-what-to-stop-start-and-accelerate

What’s next? That is the question everyone is asking. The future is not what we thought it would be only a few short months ago.

In a previous article, we discussed seven broad ideas that we thought would shape the global economy as it struggled to define the next normal. In this one, we set out seven actions that have come up repeatedly in our discussions with business leaders around the world. In each case, we discuss which attitudes or practices businesses should stop, which they should start, and which they should accelerate.

4          Use of artificial intelligence in sales & marketing
https://medium.com/@neelachary/use-of-artificial-intelligence-in-sales-marketing-e13c71308fc6
The area of sales and marketing it the lifeline for any business. Companies have started using artificial intelligence or AI tools to foster growth. On the other hand, most of the marketing companies have not only started using the AI-based solutions but also helped companies to adopt AI tools & solutions.

5          Japan wants manufacturing back from China, but breaking up supply chains is hard to do
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-japan-production-a-idUSKBN23F2ZO
When Japanese firm Iris Ohyama agreed in April to begin producing much-needed face masks in Japan, it marked a win for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who wants to bring manufacturing back from China.

Spooked by coronavirus-induced factory shutdowns in China, Abe’s government has earmarked $2 billion to help companies shift production home. The policy, part of a massive stimulus package to cope with the pandemic, has even been termed by some bureaucrats as a matter of national security.

6          Auto Industry in Post-COVID-19 Era — Shorter Supply Chains and More Local Procurement
https://www.plasticstoday.com/covid-19/auto-industry-post-covid-19-era-shorter-supply-chains-and-more-local-procurement/74447000963173

When Hyundai and Kia shut down assembly lines in Ulsan, Korea, back in February, it wasn’t due to some homegrown COVID-19 issue—rather, a key supplier in China, Leoni Wiring Systems, had shut up shop at the behest of the Chinese Government to stem the spread of the virus and shipments ceased overnight. Tier 2 and 3 component suppliers proved to be the bottlenecks. Even if Tier 1 supplier were in a position to start assembling modules, they had no plastic components.

7          How Cognitive Technologies Can Help Managers During the COVID-19 Crisis
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-cognitive-technologies-can-help-managers-during-the-covid-19-crisis/

Even in the best of times, managers face a huge roster of tasks across a wide range of priorities — handling daily operations, tracking progress toward corporate goals, planning for the future, overseeing individuals on their teams, and more. The pace of work has also grown exponentially in recent years within companies, as has the complexity.

8          How APIs Will Drive Next-Gen Integration
https://www.business2community.com/business-innovation/how-apis-will-drive-next-gen-integration-02318581

Integration has historically been viewed as a necessary headache. However, by using APIs to drive integration from the inside out, CIOs are now turning integration into a competitive business advantage instead of a frustrating piece of housekeeping. API growth is exploding in 2020, with more than 12,000 published at the time of writing. One of the reasons APIs have become so immensely popular is the versatility they can offer. In an age where user experience trumps everything, APIs can offer levels of integration that would have seemed impossible a short time ago.

9          How Goldman Sachs Predicted The Biggest Oil Price Crash In History
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/How-Goldman-Sachs-Predicted-The-Biggest-Oil-Price-Crash-In-History.html

Goldman Sachs booked revenues of more than US$1 billion in its commodities division for the first five months of 2020—the investment bank’s best start to a year in commodities in a decade, mostly thanks to oil trades, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

10        World economy on track for worst recession in a century, OECD says
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/oecd-outlook-1.5605866
The coronavirus crisis has triggered the worst global recession in nearly a century — and the pain is not over yet, even if there is no second wave of infections, an international economic report warned Wednesday.

Hundreds of millions of people have lost their jobs, and the crisis is hitting the poor and young people the hardest, making inequalities worse, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said in its latest analysis of global economic data.

11        Wall Street plunges to close with biggest one-day loss since mid-March
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks-idUSKBN23I1OR
Wall Street plummeted on Thursday as investors reacted to renewed fears of a pandemic resurgence and digested dour economic forecasts from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

All three major U.S. stock indexes were down about 5%, posting their worst day since mid-March, when markets were sent into freefall by the abrupt economic lockdowns put in place to contain the pandemic. The Nasdaq snapped a three-day streak of record closing highs.

12        Reinforcement Learning: The Next Big Thing For AI (Artificial Intelligence)?
https://medium.com/@kairostechinc/reinforcement-learning-the-next-big-thing-for-ai-artificial-intelligence-2c76bd4feaa9

So what is reinforcement learning? Well, interesting enough, it is not new. “Reinforcement learning is a classic behavioral phenomenon, known in the psychology literature since the early 1950s,” said Dr. Matt Johnson, who is a professor of psychology at Hult International Business School and the author of Blindsight: The (Mostly) Hidden Ways Marketing Reshapes Our Brains. “In its simplest form, it states that the frequency of a behavior will go up or down depending on the direct consequences of that behavior. This is true of animal behavior as well as human behavior.”

13        20 of the Best Social Media Marketing Tools
https://www.business2community.com/social-media/20-of-the-best-social-media-marketing-tools-02318560

Social media marketing is all about resources. One part would be human capital — the masterminds behind marketing moves. The other would be technology — powerful tools built to carry the massive social media load for marketers of every caliber.

Social media marketing has never been easy because it’s not a static field. All things changing, coming, and going, you need solid toolkits to rely on, every step of the way. Research and analytics, content curation, scheduling and publishing, with effective visuals to complement it all — there’s an arsenal of SMM tools to be employed.

14        Where Sales Prospecting and Content Marketing Collide
https://www.business2community.com/sales-management/where-sales-prospecting-and-content-marketing-collide-02318206

It’s been interesting over the last few years to see how content has crossed boundaries, sometimes squeezing through the cracks between departmental silos.

The line between sales prospecting and content marketing has certainly been one of the most impactful places where the boundary has been breached, causing a “collision” of sorts.

How sales prospecting and content marketing collide is less of a “train wreck” kind of collision and more of a tango where the friction of synchronized bodies creates something extraordinary.

15        What Is Revenue Marketing & Why Should B2B Marketers Pay Attention To It
https://outfunnel.com/revenue-marketing/
The path to major breakthroughs often begins with getting the definitions right. When you’re in charge of acquisition for a company, how do you define the thing that you do in the best possible way?

Demand generation is a useful practice, but it largely ignores what the end user wants and stops at handing leads over to sales.

16        Learning Data Science: A/B Testing in Under One Minute
https://www.r-bloggers.com/learning-data-science-a-b-testing-in-under-one-minute/
Google does it! Facebook does it! Amazon does it for sure!

Especially in the areas of web design and online advertising, everybody is talking about A/B testing. If you quickly want to understand what it is and how you can do it with R, read on!

The basic idea of A/B testing is to systematically (and normally automatically) test two different alternatives, e.g. two different web designs, and decide which one does better, e.g. in terms of conversion rate (i.e. how many people click on a button or buy a product):

17        5 Essential Papers on Sentiment Analysis
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/06/5-essential-papers-sentiment-analysis.html
From virtual assistants to content moderation, sentiment analysis has a wide range of use cases. AI models that can recognize emotion and opinion have a myriad of applications in numerous industries. Therefore, there is a large growing interest in the creation of emotionally intelligent machines. The same can be said for the research being done in natural language processing (NLP). To highlight some of the work being done in the field, below are five essential papers on sentiment analysis and sentiment classification.

18        Gamification and Simulation in Education and Corporate Learning
https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/gamification-and-simulation-in-education-and-corporate-learning

Gamification is a practice to improve learning approaches and methods, used in business environments, educational institutions, motivational programs, psychology sphere and more with the help of a game. The game can be digital, so in the form of an application, or non-digital, when used during classes and included into curriculum programmes (games with cards, on-boards, role games, etc). Wikipedia defines gamification as the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts, then explaining techniques of gamification: “Another approach to gamification is to make existing tasks feel more like games.”

19        Explaining Data Science to a Non-Data Scientist
https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/explaining-data-science-to-a-non-data-scientist
Summary:  Explaining data science to a non-data scientist isn’t as easy as it sounds.  You may know a lot about math, tools, techniques, data, and computer architecture but the question is how do you explain this briefly without getting buried in the detail.  You might try this approach.

Energy Petrochemicals and Plastics 67

Friday, June 5, 2020

Energy Petrochemicals and Plastics 67

1          Oil rises on U.S. jobless drop, OPEC+ meeting hopes
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKBN23C03V
Oil prices rose on Friday after an unexpected fall in the monthly U.S. jobless rate and OPEC’s decision to bring forward to Saturday discussions on whether to extend record production cuts.

Brent crude futures were up $2.40, or 6.0%, at $42.39 a barrel as of 1243 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $2.05, or 5.48%, to $39.46 a barrel.

2          Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast
https://www.fxempire.com/forecasts/article/natural-gas-price-fundamental-daily-forecast-tropical-storm-cristobal-tracking-toward-production-facilities-653588

Natural gas futures are trading nearly flat for a second session on Friday, underpinned by a smaller-than-expected storage injection, but capped by an uncertain demand picture in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and as a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico nears key production facilities.

In other news, spot gas prices declined across the country, with Natural Gas Intelligence’s (NGI) Spot Gas National Average down 7.0 cents to $1.665.

3          A Perfect Storm For Petrochemicals
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Big-Oils-Petrochemical-Bet-Is-Turning-Sour.html
The market for one of the main feedstocks for plastic – polyethylene – has fallen sharply over the past year, with a pronounced dip since the onset of the pandemic. “Even before the coronavirus outbreak, we were already expecting to see various petrochemical value chains … heading into an oversupply situation,” Catherine Tan, principle analyst at Wood Mackenzie, told Reuters.

4          Up for grabs: Covid-19 drives reserves of global oil and gas assets for sale to above 12.5 billion
https://www.rystadenergy.com/newsevents/news/press-releases/up-for-grabs-covid-19-drives-reserves-of-global-oil-and-gas-assets-for-sale-to-above-12.5-billion-boe/

Oil and gas companies currently have assets for sale with recoverable reserves of more than 5 billion barrels of liquids and 7.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of natural gas, Rystad Energy estimates.  While some of these planned divestments were announced before the Covid-19-related oil price crash, more were added in reaction to the pandemic and its aftermath.

5          Natural gas prices could go negative on global oversupply
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2020/6/3/natural-gas-prices-could-go-negative-on-global-oversupply
The specter of negative prices is hanging over energy markets more than a month after oil’s unforgettable crash below zero.

While crude has staged a rapid recovery after a deal by the biggest producers to curb a surplus, the $600 billion global gas market remains extraordinarily oversupplied. Traders and analysts say the worst may be yet to come as demand falls and storage nears capacity, creating the ideal conditions for negative prices in some parts of the world.

6          Commodity Resin Prices Plunge in Second Quarter
https://www.ptonline.com/articles/commodity-resin-prices-plunge-in-second-quarter
Prices of all five major commodity thermoplastics have been dropping throughout the second quarter. Despite strong demand for packaging and medical products, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic coupled with low crude-oil and other feedstock prices have significantly dampened demand for industrial and durable goods. Nearly all PE, PP, PS, PVC and PET suppliers have throttled back on resin production to adjust to weakened demand.

7          Weekly Resin Report: Trading Activity Rebounds, but Processors Still Wrestle with Uncertainty
https://www.plasticstoday.com/resin-pricing/weekly-resin-report-trading-activity-rebounds-processors-still-wrestle-uncertainty/107810854863130

Domestic prices held steady last week with a firm undertone, and off-grade prices inched a bit closer to Prime levels. Recovering energy and feedstock costs strengthened international resin prices, which were supportive to Houston levels. Strong export demand persisted, particularly for polyethylene (PE), but producers were essentially sold out as of the previous week. They intend to raise asking prices for June sales. There were a few Prime polypropylene (PP) railcars to move since some resellers’ sales fell short of forecasts as the automotive sector still lagged.

8          How the Coronavirus Crisis Will Change Plastics Processing
https://www.ptonline.com/blog/post/how-the-coronavirus-crisis-will-change-plastics-processing
I’ll admit, I’m a bit befuddled about the seemingly conflicting accounts I’ve been getting lately about what’s going on in plastics processing. On the one hand, I’m regularly hearing stories and getting press releases about processors ramping up quickly to turn lines that had been running conventional plastics products into very specific personal protection equipment in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

9          Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical to cut petchem investment
https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2110133-japans-sumitomo-chemical-to-cut-petchem-investment
Japanese chemical firm Sumitomo Chemical will lower its investment target in the petrochemical and plastic business for April 2019-March 2022, amid weakening plastic demand in light of Covid-19.

Sumitomo Chemical aims, in its three-year plan, to invest approximately 10pc of the company’s total investment of ¥850bn ($7.9bn) during April 2019-March 2022 in petrochemicals and plastics. This is down from the original plan to invest some 20pc of ¥700bn over the same period.

10        Global methanol operating rate cuts expected in second half
https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2020/06/04/10515269/insight-global-methanol-operating-rate-cuts-expected-in-second-half

Although demand is slowly picking up, the global methanol market will remain soft in the second half of the year with operating rate cuts expected globally.

This is predominantly driven by oversupply, a weakened futures market in China, and lack of storage which puts pressure on second half prices.

11        Easing lockdown measures revs up Asia petrochemical markets
https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2020/06/03/10514706/easing-lockdown-measures-revs-up-asia-petrochemical-markets

Petrochemical markets in Asia are coming back to life after about two months of general weakness as pandemic-induced lockdowns in most countries in the region are being lifted, boding well for demand from June onward.

Market sentiment is upbeat, providing room for prices of selected petrochemicals to post strong increases, aided by gains in upstream crude markets.

A strong recovery in demand, however, is still out of the question amid the coronavirus pandemic.

12        China approves $20 billion mega petchem complex in Shandong oil hub
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-oil-refinery-shandong-exclusive-idUSKBN2390OU
hina is reviving a $20 billion petrochemical project in eastern Shandong province as part of efforts to dial up infrastructure spending to support an economy struggling with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, two China-based industry sources said.

The 400,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery and 3 million tonne-per-year ethylene plant in Yantai, Shandong, the country’s hub for independent oil refineries, was proposed years ago but approval has been slowing in coming because of China’s struggle with excess refining capacity.

13        What U.S. shale’s woes mean for Canada’s oil and gas industry
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/us-shale-oil-impact-on-canada-1.5593771
The rise of the U.S. shale oil sector shook up energy markets worldwide, but the economic wallop of the pandemic is now rattling that same industry to the core.

The situation has led to billions of dollars of losses and fears of a wave of bankruptcies, while some believe a recovery could be at least a year away or even more.

14        Why Saudi Arabia Is Desperate To Extend OPEC+ Cuts
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Why-Saudi-Arabia-Is-Desperate-To-Extend-OPEC-Cuts.html
OPEC+ hopes to reduce global storage volumes with their production cuts, and hopes to extend them through at least, the summer. OPEC’s regular meeting in Vienna is coming up and of course the Russians will be invited as they hold the key to realizing the 9.7 mm BOPD cut now in effect through June. Their hope is to extend these cuts beyond the June-30th expiration through September, 1st.

15        Russia’s Novak sees potential 3-5 million bpd oil market shortage in July
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-russia-novak-idUSKBN23B0ZF
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday that the global oil market could face a shortage of 3-5 million barrels per day (bpd) in July, depending on a deal to be reached by OPEC+ producers, Interfax news agency reported.

The OPEC+ group of oil producers agreed to cut production by almost 10 billion bpd in May and June to support global oil prices. They have been discussing whether to continue the cuts beyond June at the same pace.

16        Global LNG demand heading into seasonal contraction
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/woodmac-global-lng-demand-heading-into-seasonal-contraction/
The global liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry is about to face its first seasonal demand contraction since 2012.

Demand in summer 2020 expected to fall 2.7 per cent or 3 million tonnes (Mt) year-on-year, says the consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

Lockdown measures and negative economic outlook stemming from the coronavirus pandemic has taken its toll on Asian LNG importing countries, resulting in the second consecutive year of sluggish LNG demand growth.

17        Offshore Oil Is On The Brink Of Collapse
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Offshore-Oil-Is-On-The-Brink-Of-Collapse.html
Project cancellations, spending cuts, well shut-ins: the problems and dilemmas plaguing onshore oil producers have also spread to offshore. And while the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on onshore drilling may already be wearing off here and there where drilling is cheap, they may linger for longer offshore.

Despite major progress made by oil companies in the cost department, offshore drilling often remains more expensive than onshore drilling, not least because the process of extraction is more complex. These are costs that one can’t cut or forgo. What this means in the current environment, is that offshore oil may suffer more than onshore oil.

18        Natgas flows to U.S. LNG export plants sink to 9-month low due to coronavirus
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lng-coronavirus-idUSKBN2390I1
The amount of natural gas flowing on pipelines to U.S. liquefied natural gas export plants is at its lowest levels since August, a signal of weak worldwide demand due to government lockdowns to repress the coronavirus.

Worldwide gas prices have plunged to record lows in Europe and Asia as lockdowns squeeze demand. Consumption of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has remained stronger than gasoline demand as LNG is used for power generation, but the cash crunch hitting the global economy has cut demand.

19        Which oil and gas segment will pick-up faster following COVID-19?
https://www.offshore-technology.com/news/petrochemical-oil-gas-segment-to-recover-quicker-after-covid-19/

Fall in crude prices and reduced demand from end-user markets during the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the oil and gas industry forcing companies to postpone investments and stall existing projects until the situation improves.

Offshore Technology has conducted a poll to assess which oil and gas segments among petrochemical, refinery, upstream, and midstream will pick-up faster than others after COVID-19.

20        China drives global oil demand recovery out of coronavirus collapse
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-demand-analysis-idUSKBN23A0XF
China’s oil demand has recovered to more than 90% of the levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic struck early this year, a surprisingly robust rebound that could be mirrored elsewhere in the third quarter as more countries emerge from lockdowns.