Friday, February 22, 2019
Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 6
1 The Oil And Gas Situation: Is A Train Wreck Around The Corner?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2019/02/22/the-oil-and-gas-situation-is-a-train-wreck-around-the-corner/
The energy media has recently featured headlines that seem at odds with one another and that, when taken together, portend the possibility of a coming train wreck somewhere down the road where crude oil supply and prices are concerned.
2 U.S.-based Devon Energy to sell oilsands assets and leave Canada
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/devon-oilsands-sale-1.5026090
Another foreign company is exiting the Alberta oilsands. Devon Energy has hired advisers to help sell off the company’s oilsands assets as the firm plans to leave Canada by the end of the year.
3 Nova Chemicals’ take on the Alliance to End Plastic Waste
https://www.plasticstoday.com/packaging/nova-chemicals-take-on-alliance-end-plastic-waste/93397636260284
The plastics industry is mobilizing quickly on multiple fronts putting out raging firestorms of anti-plastics opinion and activities including bans and other proposed regulations that target plastic pollution and waste. One of the latest and most ambitious of the broad-based countermeasures is the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), which was announced last month (see CEOs tout ambitions of Alliance to End Plastic Waste during live media presentation, published January 2019) and has a specific focus on ocean pollution.
4 Plastics News: Braskem manufactures “I’m Green” PE from renewable resources
https://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20190219/NEWS/302199999/braskem-launches-new-chemical-recycling-study
Braskem has launched a new study to develop a chemical recycling process for post-consumer plastics, such as grocery bags and packaging films for snacks and cookies.
5 Biopolymer films market value to surpass $6.7 billion by 2025
https://www.plasticstoday.com/packaging/biopolymer-films-market-value-surpass-67-billion-2025/199434660160289
The food and beverage segment led demand among end users in the global biopolymer films market in 2017, according to a new report from Global Market Insights (GMI; Selbyville, DE), Global Biopolymer Films Market. Escalating demand for packaged food, particularly because of increasing per-capita income, along with a growing number of working populations across the world will boost demand.
6 Warm winter pushes LNG to 17-month low in biggest market
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2019/2/22/warm-winter-pushes-lng-to-17-month-low-in-biggest-market
Liquefied natural gas prices in North Asia, the world’s biggest market for the fuel, have slumped to the lowest in 17 months as the peak demand season ends with a whimper.
7 $5B Louisiana LNG Project to Break Ground Immediately | Rigzone
https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/5b_louisiana_lng_project_to_break_ground_immediately-22-feb-2019-158222-article/?all=hg2
Venture Global LNG Inc. said it will start construction immediately on its $5 billion Calcasieu Pass liquefied natural gas export terminal in Louisiana after receiving approval from the top U.S. energy regulator.
8 Rival presidents face off as Venezuela’s economy crashes
https://www.petroleum-economist.com/articles/politics-economics/south-central-america/2019/rival-presidents-face-off-as-venezuelas-economy-crashes
Venezuela is rapidly heading towards uncharted territory, barely a month after the newly-appointed national assembly (NA) leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president and called for fresh elections. The South American oil giant must now cope with an escalating political crisis, while also enduring the economic upheaval caused by a new raft of US sanctions on state-owned energy firm Pdvsa.
9 How Pemex ‘destroyed’ $1 billion with erratic business choices
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-oil-pemex-audit-idUSKCN1QA30Q
Mexico’s state-oil company Pemex burned through $665 million at its fertilizer unit, ignored consultants and made high-risk investments with no discernible business strategy, according to a devastating government audit of its 2017 operations.
10 Mexican’s Oil Policy Should Not Be A Slave To Ideology
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellynch/2019/02/11/mexicans-oil-policy-should-not-be-a-slave-to-ideology/
Years ago, at a ministerial level meeting, the U.S. Secretary of Energy lectured other energy ministers about how ‘free markets’ would eliminate oil price volatility. Aside from being nonsensical, his comments came shortly after the U.S. had announced tariffs on steel imports, emphasizing his hypocrisy. But in response, I pointed out that there was no such thing as a free market: they are a theoretical construct.
