Nitrogen & Methanol articles from July 2003

Nitrogen & Methanol archives from July 2003

Has Europe saved the WTO? (Editorial).
July 1, 2003... On June 26th the European Union finally concluded a reform package for the EU Common Agricultural Policy. As trailed in the November/December 2002 issue of Nitrogen & Methanol, the agreement is largely based on the Franco-German deal hammered...

Market bottoms out as US shuts down. (Ammonia).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The ammonia market began May in free-fall, and with sellers looking to the US to rescue the market, but to begin with, with only Turkey and Korea buying, things looked set to fall further until Morocco and the US began picking up Yuzhnyy...

Market stabilises. (Urea).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The market for prilled urea has had a rollercoaster ride over the past couple of months. Yuzhnyy prices had begun March in excess of $140/t f.o.b., only to slump to around $110/t at the start of April, and then swing back towards $120/t by the...

Gas prices push prices higher. (Methanol).
July 1, 2003... The June contract natural gas reference price was settled earlier in the month, at $5.98/mmBtu for Texas, up $0.90/mmBtu from May's contract price. Nevertheless, methanol units in Canada and the US Gulf continue to perform at, or near, capacity...

New urea plant for Oregon? (United States).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Unlikely as it sounds in the current industry climate, someone is actually planning on spending $250m on building a new gas-based greenfield ammonia/urea plant in the continental United States. The Washington State-based Makad Corporation, now...

Less gas for Kenai. (Nitrogen Industry News).(Unocal Corp.)(Agrium Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Unocal has told Agrium that it can expect cutbacks in the supply of gas to the company's ammonia/urea units at Kenai, Alaska from this summer. Agrium has 1.25m t/a ammonia and 1.0m t/a of urea capacity at the site. Agrium is seeking legal...

More plants close as gas prices increase. (Nitrogen Industry News).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... More US ammonia plants have been shutting down again only weeks after restarting as gas prices move back up again. CF Industries has closed its Donaldsonville plants due to market conditions, and Koch Nitrogen has done likewise with its...

EFMA members agree 'core values'. (European Union).(European Fertilizer Manufacturers' Association)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Members of the European Fertilizer Manufacturers' Association (EFMA) have signed up to a common list of 'core values' to demonstrate their collective commitment to ethical conduct, sustainability, and the highest achievable standards with...

EFMA/IFA to cooperate on riskassessment. (European Union/United States).(European Fertilizer Manufacturers Association/Fertilizer Institute)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Following the finalization in March this year of their joint four-year toxicity testing research programme on 23 HPV fertilizer products, the European Fertilizer Manufacturers Association (EFMA) and The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) have now...

Hydro adding shipping capacity.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Hydro adding shipping capacity. Hydro Agri has entered a joint venture with Rostock (Germany)-based shipping firm Reederi F Laeisz GmbH to order a further 60,000[m.sup.3] LPG/ammonia vessel from Hyundai Heavy Industries. The ship is due to be...

Indian agronomist wins IFA award.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Indian agronomist wins IFA award. Dr. Vethaiya T. Balasubramanian (BAN) was presented with the International Fertilizer Association's (IFA) International Award at the organisation's annual conference in Philadelphia in May. Dr Bala's award was...

Bangladesh revives plan to build new urea plant.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Bangladesh revives plan to build new urea plant. The Bangladesh Ministry of Industries is considering reviving plans to build a granular urea plant in the northwestern part of the country. The proposed plant will have a design capacity of...

UAN anti-dumping case to continue.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... UAN anti-dumping case to continue. US UAN producers are appealing a ruling by the US International Trade Commission that held domestic producers were not materially harmed or threatened by UAN imports from Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine. The...

Johnson Matthey merges Synetix into its chemicals business. (United Kingdom).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... On June 4th Johnson Matthey announced that newly acquired catalyst and technology company Synetix (formerly ICI Katalco) would be merged with Johnson Matthey's own Chemicals division to become the Process Catalysts and Technologies business of...

NPC contemplates future offtake agreements. (Iran).(National Petrochemical Corporation)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The Iranian National Petrochemical Corporation (NPC) is working on future off-take agreements for the output from its new ammonia and granular urea projects, which are scheduled to come on-stream between 2004 and 2006. The company is said to be...

AN anti-dumping investigation. (Ukraine).(ammonium nitrate)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The Ukrainian government has announced that it is monitoring imports of ammonium nitrate from all countries as of May. According to the ministry all importers now require a certificate of origin for all AN imports. The move follows a...

Methanex to buy Titan. (Trinidad & Tobago).(Methanex Corp.)(Titan Energy Co.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Methanex is to acquire the remaining 90% interest in the 850,000 t/a Titan methanol facility in Trinidad from Beacon Energy and BP. Methanex bought a 10% interest in the plant in 2000. The total purchase price, including transaction costs, is...

Methanex to buy back shares. (Canada).(Methanex Corp)(NOVA Chemicals Corp.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Methanex Corp is to buy back nine million of its shares from NOVA Chemicals Corp. NOVA is currently Methanex's largest shareholder, with 46.9 million shares, a 37% interest. The purchase price of US$9.85 per share puts the cost of the...

Methanol plants for Mongolia. (China).(Baotou Huazi Industrial Inc.)(Beifang Heavy Industrial)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Baotou Huazi Industry has announced plans to build a $520m, 1.0m t/a methanol unit at Baotou in Inner Mongolia. The company is working in partnership with Beifang Heavy Industrial, and hopes to secure government approval for the plant to begin...

Coal based methanol expansions. (China).(Shaanxi Yulin Natural Gas Chemical Industrial Company Ltd.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... As mentioned last issue, the Shaanxi Yulin Natural Gas Chemical Industrial Co Ltd is expanding production at its 120,000 t/a methanol unit at Yulin. The first stage, costing $91.5m and bringing production to 200,000 t/a, will be complete be the...

Slow progress for gas market reform. (Russia).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The Russian government has issued a national energy strategy including a strategic plan for the gas sector, although it appears to have backed off from radical reform, especially of Gazprom. Current gas production is around 595bcm/year, and...

New GTL technology company. (United States).(GTL MicroSystems)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... FMC Technologies Inc. and UK-based Accentus plc have established of a joint venture company, GTL MicroSystems, for the commercial development of small-scale gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology. FMC and Accentus have been researching small-scale...

Aceh offensive worries gas markets. (Indonesia).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... On May 19th Indonesia's president Megawati Sukarnoputri sent 40,000 troops into the disputed province of Aceh in northern Sumatra in another attempt to crush an estimated 5,000 rebels there following the collapse of peace talks. The renewed...

ACM. (People).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Bernard Michel has been elected to the board of IMC Global at the company's ACM. Michel, 65, was retired chairman and CEO of the Cameco Corporation, the world's largest producer and refiner of uranium, but he had previously worked for France's...

BASF. (People).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Jurgen Strube has been elected as the new chairman of the BASF supervisory board, with Robert Ostwald as deputy chairman. The former supervisory board chairman, Berhold Leibinger, was appointed honorary chairman. Meanwhile, BASF's vice...

Agrium's John Van Brunt is to retire on September 30th from his position as chief executive officer. (People).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Agrium's John Van Brunt is to retire on September 30th from his position as chief executive officer. He will continue in his roles as the company's vice chairman and his positions with various fertilizer industry associations. He will be...

DSM Agro. (People).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Renso Zwiers has been appointed business group director of DSM Agro, succeeding Don Verstegen. He was previously manager of DX Plastomers.

Members of Gazprom's board of directors have voted to 'change the executive board structure', removing Vladimir Leviev, Sergei Lukash and Nikolai Gornovski. (People).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Members of Gazprom's board of directors have voted to 'change the executive board structure', removing Vladimir Leviev, Sergei Lukash and Nikolai Gornovski. Valery Golubev, general director of subsidiary Gazcomplektimpeks, and deputy chairman...

Diary.
July 1, 2003... September 7-9 2003 TFI World Fertilizer Conference, Boston, USA. Contact: Linda McAbee, The Fertilizer Institute, 820 First St, Washington DC 2002, USA. Tel: +1 202 962 0490 Email: imacabee@tfi.org September...

Coal as a feedstock: with natural gas prices rises in much of the world, attention has begun to focus on the possibility of using alternative feedstocks for ammonia production. Gasified coal has long been used as a source of syngas, and new environmental concerns have given fresh impetus to this technology. (Alternative Feedstocks).
July 1, 2003... Most ammonia and urea is produced from natural gas. However, in theory any hydrocarbon feedstock can be used provided that it is capable of being oxidised to synthesis gas (syngas). India, for example, with a shortage of natural gas, makes...

C[O.sub.2] removal systems for ammonia plants--a survey. (Ammonia Technology).
July 1, 2003... The economics of hydrogen and ammonia plants heavily depends on the efficiency of systems used for removal of carbon dioxide from process gas. Over the past 30 years there have been many innovations in this section of the plant, from ordinary...

Nitrogen project listings 2003.(Illustration)
July 1, 2003... Nitrogen project listing 2003 Contractor Licensor Company AUSTRALIA Thiess Uhde Dampier Nitrogen Thiess Stamicarbon/Hydro ...

Economics of LTS catalyts in ammonia plants: David Borzik of MissChem Nitrogen, Inc., and David Rice of Sud Chemie Inc. discuss how low temperature shift (LTS) catalyst performance can affect plant economics, and show the savings that can be made from higher activity catalysts. (Catalysts).
July 1, 2003... In today's challenging business environment, it is important to understand how catalyst performance affects the cost of ammonia production. In order to determine the effects of aging front-end ammonia plant catalysts, a paper study was done by...

Piping and vessel safety in nitrogen plants: considering how highly stressed they are, nitrogen chemicals plants are remarkably safe and reliable, thanks partly to the various codes and standards relating to pressure equipment design and fabrication and partly to systematic inspection and maintenance. Nevertheless, failures still occur occasionally in piping and vessels, not always those operating under the highest pressures. (Safety).
July 1, 2003... The only chemical routes for fixing atmospheric nitrogen that have been developed to the commercial scale to date consume large amounts of high-level energy from external sources--electrical energy in the case of the original Birkeland-Eyde...

Re-using melamine off-gas: recycling ammonia and carbon dioxide generated in a melamine plant to a urea plant is not too much of problem in a closely-integrated urea-melamine operation, but it is less straightforward if the process units are not close together. The Pulawy Nitrogen Works in Poland has come up with its own way round this problem. (Urea Production).
July 1, 2003... There are various ways of reusing the off-gases (ammonia and carbon dioxide) from pressurized melamine units by introducing them directly to the reaction system of a urea plant or, where the condensation system is operated under a pressure...