Nitrogen & Methanol articles from March 2004

Nitrogen & Methanol archives from March 2004

CSR is the new green.(Editorial)
March 1, 2004... There is every sign that Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR is going to be to the start of the 21st century what the environment was to the end of the 20th. Like the early environmental movement it has begun via a groundswell of public...

Ammonia prices peak in January.(Ammonia)
March 1, 2004... Ammonia's record-breaking run continued into January, but by the middle of the month prices had reached a natural limit it seemed at around $280/t f.o.b. Yuzhnyy. Even as supply started to tighten, with Yuzhnyy availability for January 60,000...

Market reaches bottom.(Urea)
March 1, 2004... The urea market continued to fall in January as buyers remained elusive, particularly in Latin America, and traders sought to offload an estimated 200,000 tonnes. High freight rates from Russia to the Americas and to Asia and an overhang of...

Balanced market offers little relief on prices.(Methanol)
March 1, 2004... The methanol supply picture has improved from the low point of early 2003. The industry remains relatively balanced, albeit with a reduced inventory level. Improved operating rates during Q1 2004 have helped, but for the next several months,...

IMC Global and Cargill Crop Nutrition to merge.(United States)
March 1, 2004... IMC Global and Cargill have announced that they will merge IMC Global with Cargill Crop Nutrition to create a new, publicly traded company. The new entity's name, headquarters and management team have yet to be decided, although Fritz Corrigan,...

Iran blast may have been due to fertilizer.(Iran)
March 1, 2004... A rail explosion on 18th February in northeast Iran which resulted in heavy casualties may have been caused by fertilizer. According to international media reports, the explosion killed at least 400 people, injured several hundred more and...

DSM to cut 500 support jobs.(Netherlands)
March 1, 2004... DSM says the following completion of its "Copernicus" operational review, aimed at boosting the efficiency of manufacturing activities at the company's Geleen site, there will be restructuring over the next two years which will realise cost...

EC ends Russian urea anti-dumping review.(European Union)
March 1, 2004... The European Commission ahs officially ended its interim review of anti-dumping duties on Russian urea imports, and confirmed that it does not plan to place a further import duty on urea shipped to the EU from Russia. The 115/t minimum import...

Enaex considers tenders for urea plant transfer.(Chile)
March 1, 2004... Chilean explosives manufacturer Enaex has received tenders from Foster Wheeler, Jacobs and Technip for moving the former Irish Fertilizer Industries (IFI) ammonia and urea plants from Cork to South America. Enaex bought the plants in 2003 from...

Pulawy signs JV deal.(Russia)
March 1, 2004... Polish fertilizer manufacturer Zaklady Azotowe Pulawy has set up a joint venture with Agrochimexport and Rosagrochim in Russia for the distribution of fertilizers and chemicals within Russia. Pulawy will have a 50% stake in the new company--to...

Vopak sells tanker fleet.(News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... Vopak sells tanker fleet. Dutch chemical logistics company Vopak has sold its chemical tanker fleet to the German shipping group John T Essberger in a [euro]110m deal. The two companies' ships have been operating as a joint venture for the past...

Shareholders agree to Yara demerger.(News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... Shareholders agree to Yara demerger. An extraordinary meeting of Norsk Hydro share-holders on January 15th has agreed to demerge the company's fertilizer arm Hydro Agri as Yara International. Yara has also secured $1.5bn of credit from a...

Fertilizer producers' association formed.(News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... Fertilizer producers' association formed. Three of Russia's largest fertilizer producers; Eurochem, PhosAgro, and JSC AK Azot, have formed the Fertilizer Producers' Association (APU). The Association said that its aims inclide the coordination...

Online search facility now available.(www.britishsulphursearch.com)
March 1, 2004... Company and product directory information from British Sulphur's Fertilizer Yearbook and Sulphur Yearbook is now available for free online at www.britishsulphursearch.com All that is required is a brief free registration and you can begin...

Dwindling gas supplies push prices up.(New Zealand)
March 1, 2004... The steady depletion of New Zealand's Maui gas field is causing increasing headaches for the country as a whole, and not just the Methanex methanol/gasoline plants that are fed from it. Discovered over 30 years ago, Maui has supplied 80% of New...

Philippines and China eye Spratly JV.(China)
March 1, 2004... The Philippines and Chinese governments are looking into forming JVs for natural gas exploration in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The two countries hope that by working together there will be less tension, less...

Activity continues for methanol and derivatives.(China)
March 1, 2004... Toyo Engineering has been awarded the contract to build a 445,000 t/a methanol plant at the Sichuan West Chemical City in Luzhou for the China Lutianhua Corporation. Foundations have now been laid at the 200,000 t/a coal-based methanol...

Focus still on LNG.(India)
March 1, 2004... India is still focusing on LNG imports to cover its estimated 10bcm per year gas deficit. With the first cargo of Qatari LNG only just arrived, state-owned Petronet is already planning to double capacity at its 5.0m t/a LNG receiving terminal...

New pipeline to Germany.(Russia)
March 1, 2004... The Russian government has authorised Gazprom to begin constructing its proposed North European Gas Pipeline. The pipeline aims to travel direct from Russian soil and across the Baltic Sea to Germany, linking in with pipelines to Holland and...

LNG imports double.(United States)
March 1, 2004... Imports of LNG to the US doubled during 2003 to about 10.6m t/a according to industry figures. The additional supplies mostly came from Trinidad whether Atlantic LNG's third train came on-stream in May, but Algerian and Nigerian LNG also pushed...

Methanex buys Terra contracts.(United States)
March 1, 2004... Methanex has agreed with Terra Industries to buy all of Terra's methanol customer contracts from its 700,000 t/a Beaumont, Texas plant. Methanex will also acquire certain production rights to the facility and exclusive rights to all methanol...

Timor Sea saga takes new twist.(Australia)
March 1, 2004... Australia's ongoing attempts to improve its royalty rights on oil and gas development in the Timor Sea has taken a new turn with a $30bn lawsuit being filed in the US by American firm Oceanic Exploration against the Indonesian and Australian...

Chinese gas explosion blamed on negligence.(News In Brief)
March 1, 2004... Chinese gas explosion blamed on negligence. The accident that killed 243 people and injured 9,000 on December 23rd when a gas well exploded at Gaoquiaozhen in Kaixian has been blamed on negligence. On January 10th three people were arrested in...

BP sells stake in Sinopec.(News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... BP sells stake in Sinopec. BP has sold its 2.1% share of Sinopec, estimated to be worth $740m. Having bought the shares at $385m in October 2000, the company therefore looks set to realise a $350m profit. BP sold its stake in PetroChina only a...

New storage capacity.(News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... New storage capacity. Mexico's state oil and gas company Pemex has tasked US firm Tidelands Oil & Gas with constructing more gas storage capacity in the country. Pemex's lack of storage capacity ties it very closely to US gas prices, meaning...

GTL technology proven.(News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... GTL technology proven. BP says that after six months of operation at its $86m GTL demonstrator plant at Kenai, Alaska, the company considers their technology to be proven.

Mississippi Chemicals president and CEO since 1993 Charles O. Dunn has resigned with effect from March 1st.(People)
March 1, 2004... Mississippi Chemicals president and CEO since 1993 Charles O. Dunn has resigned with effect from March 1st. His duties will be assumed by Coley L. Bailey, the chairman of the board. Larry Holley has also been named as senior vice president and...

Lasse Kurkilahti.(People)
March 1, 2004... Kemira's new CEO Lasse Kurkilahti took up his post on February 1st, four months earlier than planned. He succeeds the previous CEO Tauno Pihlavaa.

Jan Reinas.(People)
March 1, 2004... Norsk Hydro's board has unanimously recommended Jan Reinas to be elected as the new chairman at the company's March AGM. Reinas, currently CEO of paper group norske Skog, has also served as CEO of the SAS airline. Hydro's present chairman Egil...

Gerald Pabst.(People)
March 1, 2004... Gerald Pabst has been appointed as the new marketing director for fertilizers at AMI Agrolinz Melamine International GmbH, replacing Friedrich Wimmer, who has retired.

Maria Emma Crespo.(People)
March 1, 2004... Maria Emma Crespo has joined Cargill Crop nutrition as the company's Latin American regional coordinator. She will report to Corinne Ricard and replaces Andres Eizayaga, who has moved to Cargill's distribution business in Mexico. Crespo...

Diary.(People & Diary)(Calendar)
March 1, 2004... March 21-24 Nitrogen 2004 Conference & Exhibition, Munich, Germany. Contact: Conference Administrator, British Sulphur Publishing Ltd, 31 Mount Pleasant, London WC1X 0AD, UK. Tel: +44 20 7903 2010. Fax: +44 20 7903 2432. ...

The changing face of the US nitrogen and methanol industries: natural gas price spikes that cause a significant section of the US nitrogen and methanol industry to shut down now seem to be becoming ever more common. Does this mark the end of the US nitrogen industry as we know it, or will the falling dollar come to the rescue?(US Industry)
March 1, 2004... The US nitrogen and methanol industries have had an interesting couple of years. High natural gas prices have once again turned them into natural gas traders rather than fertilizer producers; PotashCorp say they made $90m out of selling gas...

Issues in the natural gas industry: with the bulk of ammonia and methanol produced from natural gas, the future of the gas industry has a big impact on product pricing and siting of new plants. The natural gas industry is in a period of structural change. What will the impact be on the ammonia and methanol industries?(Feedstock)
March 1, 2004... Natural gas is the energy source with the fastest rising consumption globally. According to the US Energy Information Administration, consumption of natural gas worldwide is projected to increase by an average of 2.8% annually from 2001 to...

New granulation process makes its debut in two major urea projects: Uhde GmbH has won the contracts for two major ammonia/granular urea installations in Egypt. The two identical plants will incorporate the first full-scale embodiment of the new Stamicarbon urea granulation process.(Construction Projects)
March 1, 2004... Uhde's relationship with the Egyptian fertilizer industry dates back to the end of the 1970s, when the company designed, engineered and constructed a nitrogen complex (Abu Qir I) comprising a 1,100-t/d ammonia plant and a 1,550-t/d prilled urea...

Taking the heat off: some of the process gas coolers in an ammonia plant have to withstand very severe operating conditions. Even the best can have problems.(Ammonia Process Equipment)
March 1, 2004... One of the hallmarks of the integrated single-train ammonia process is the heat recovery system, which is designed to recover both combustion waste heat from the reforming furnace and reaction heat from the process gases by raising the plant's...

Process gas coolers for ammonia plants.(Buyers Guide)
March 1, 2004... Waste heat boilers and other process gas coolers for ammonia plants are custom equipment, not the kind one can buy off the shelf. In most cases, the design is the result of close co-operation between an engineering contractor (indicated in the...