Friday, July 5, 2019
Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 24
1 Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Weak Jobs Data Will Increase Concerns Over Future Demand
https://www.fxempire.com/forecasts/article/oil-price-fundamental-daily-forecast-weak-jobs-data-will-increase-concerns-over-future-demand-584750
Crude oil traders will be watching closely the U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls report, due to be released at 12:30 GMT. A weaker-than-expected report will likely drive prices lower since this will support the case for lower future demand.
2 Oil Prices Set For Worst Weekly Drop In Five Weeks | OilPrice.com
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Oil-Prices-Set-For-Worst-Weekly-Drop-In-Five-Weeks.html
Concerns about weakening global economy and oil demand growth trumped simmering U.S.-Iran tensions and OPEC and allies’ rollover of the production cuts into 2020, sending oil prices early on Friday on course to book their largest weekly decline in five weeks.
3 Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast
https://www.fxempire.com/forecasts/article/natural-gas-price-fundamental-daily-forecast-low-demand-expectations-capping-early-gains-depressed-prices-supportive-584746
Prices are currently straddling a minor retracement zone at $2.201 to $2.308 while investors await an updated weather forecast.
4 Why Natural Gas Prices Collapsed | OilPrice.com
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Why-Natural-Gas-Prices-Collapsed20700.html
U.S. natural gas prices have collapsed since the end of winter, even as inventory levels remain below average levels for this time of year.
Henry Hub prices spiked in the fourth quarter of 2018 due to record levels of demand, cold weather, and historically low inventories. But prices remained elevated, over $4/MMBtu, for only a brief period of time. Production continued to soar, so traders were not overly concerned about market tightness.
5 How serious are oil and gas companies about the energy transition?
New energy’s time has come. It’s less than four years since the Paris Agreement set the long-term goal to limit the rise in global temperature to well below 2°C. Back then, the oil and gas industry had zero appetite to invest in decarbonisation. Paris lit the fuse. I caught up with Valentina Kretzschmar, Research Director, to find out what’s happening.
6 The world has 12 years to limit greenhouse gas emissions or face severe impacts from global warming.
So proclaimed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its updated report on climate change in October 2018, setting off alarm bells around the world. A growing list of countries, states, local communities and global businesses has heeded the call to action and adopted more aggressive measures to limit their carbon footprints.
7 Hyundai Oilbank to expand aromatics capacity
https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/1933723-hyundai-oilbank-to-expand-aromatics-capacity
South Korean refiner Hyundai Oilbank is undertaking 260bn won ($222.2mn) in projects to expand its aromatics production capacity, in a bet that an increased weighting toward petrochemicals will boost its profitability.
8 The Plastics Backlash has Some Oil Giants Worried | Rigzone
https://www.rigzone.com/news/the_plastics_backlash_has_some_oil_giants_worried-04-jul-2019-159224-article/
Faced with sooner than anticipated peak demand from transportation, industry, buildings and the power sector, BP Plc, Total SA and Exxon Mobil, amongst others, are investing in factories and refineries that convert fossil fuels into plastics and chemical feedstocks–a sector that is, according to the BP Energy Outlook 2019“the single-largest projected source of oil demand growth in the next twenty years.” Indeed, the EIA expects U.S. demand for feedstock to increase from 40 million metric tons a year today to 60 million by 2040.
9 INTERACTIVE INSIGHT: ICIS global price index down 15% in second quarter
https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2019/07/03/10387182/interactive-insight-icis-global-price-index-down-15-in-second-quarter
Petrochemical and polymer prices have come under increasing downward pressure as end use markets slow and the oil price falls.
The ICIS Petrochemical Index (IPEX) shows how difficult the first half was for producers with the indexes for the three main producing and consuming regions trending downwards.
Commodity resin trading improved again last week compared to the dismal start to the month, but overall volumes still tallied the lowest of 2019, reports the PlasticsExchange (Chicago) in its Market Update. The volumes were still above November and December levels, however.
11 Americas petrochemicals outlook, w/c July 1
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/petrochemicals/070119-americas-petrochemicals-outlook-w-c-july-1
Prompt July ethylene contracts slightly rose over the week. The market is closely watching the timing of the return of the BASF/Total cracker back to operations, which will most likely be sometime this week. Moreover, ethane prices will most likely impact ethylene prices to a great extent.
12 South Korea’s S-Oil says Saudi Aramco to give advice on $6 billion petchem project
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-s-oil-saudi-aramco-idUSKCN1TR0NO
S-Oil, South Korea’s No.3 oil refiner by capacity, said it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with its top shareholder, Saudi Aramco, for technical advice on a multi-billion dollar petrochemical plant it is looking to build.
13 Packaging Outlook Shifts With New Data: Gardner Intelligence
https://www.gardnerintelligence.com/blog/post/packaging-outlook-shifts-with-new-data
The latest projections for revenues and earnings now contain estimates through the third quarter of 2021. According to these more distant projections, expectations are for less than 1% industry growth before accounting for inflation which could easily result in contracting real revenues and earnings in 2021.
14 Eni produces first oil from Miztón field offshore Mexico
https://www.offshoreenergytoday.com/eni-produces-first-oil-from-mizton-field-offshore-mexico/
Italian oil company Eni has started the early production phase from the Miztón field in Area 1, located in the Campeche Bay offshore Mexico, making Eni the first international company to start offshore production in Mexico after the Energy Reform.
15 Russia remains top crude supplier to China’s independent refineries in June
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/070419-russia-remains-top-crude-supplier-to-chinas-independent-refineries-in-june
Russia remained as the top crude supplier to China’s independent refineries in June — the second consecutive month — with 2.32 million mt arrived, far outpacing the second supplier in Angola, S&P Global Platts monthly survey showed Thursday.
