Nitrogen & Methanol articles from May 2000

Nitrogen & Methanol archives from May 2000

Opportunity NOx.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... This issue is our annual look at nitric acid technology. One of the major concerns for the industry over the past decade has been to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from tail gas streams in order to meet ever-more stringent emissions...

Outages and strong demand push prices further.(Ammonia prices)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... Prices continued to firm in major markets during March and April. In addition to the usual seasonal upswing, Russian and Ukrainian producers have been allocating more ammonia for domestic production and export volumes have consequently been...

Market dips on slack demand.(Urea prices)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... After a two-month bull run, urea prices stalled at the start of March at just above $904 f.o.b Yuzhnyy as demand weakened. With the season for European imports ending, Black Sea prices dropped from $90/t f.o.b. at the start of March to around...

Gas prices, strong demand keep market moving up.(Trinidad and Tobago Methanol Co.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... During the period under review, natural gas pricing remained volatile and unpredictable. For April, contract pricing for the US Gulf Coast settled at $3.00/mmBtu; up $0.29/mmBtu from March. The industry would normally begin to see a softening...

Price indications.(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2000... Price indications Cash equivalent mid-Apr mid-Feb mid-Dec mid-Oct Ammonia ($/t) fob Caribbean 150-155 116-118 100-105 98-100 fob Middle East 153-157 160-165 123-128 117-124 c+f...

Urea prices rise again, RPS under fire.(Retention Pricing Scheme in India)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... The Indian government has made its most determined attempt yet to grasp the nettle of spiralling fertilizer subsidies in its most recent budget. Urea prices for end-users are to rise by 15% from Rs 4,000/t to Rs 4,6001t ($105/t), which will...

Russian AN may get duty waiver.(Ammonium nitrate)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Negotiations between the Russian and US governments have led to an agreement which will allow the suspension of the previously agreed 265% duty in favour of import limits and a minimum sales price. The deal apparently allows Russia to export...

MissChem buys urea plant from Agrico.(Mississippi Chemical Corp.; IMC-Agrico)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Mississippi Chemicals has signed a letter of intent to purchase a 250,000 st/a granular urea facility in Faustina, Louisiana from IMC Agrico. The Faustina plant has been closed since last year; a shut-down which had been assumed to be...

Hydro names plants which face the axe.(Norsk Hydro A/S to cut fertilizer capacity)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Norsk Hydro, which in December announced that it was to close over one million tonnes of fertilizer capacity in Europe, in March named the specific plants that it plans to close. The affected installations are at Immingham in the UK, Landskrona...

Now UAN faces anti-dumping duty.(urea ammonium nitrate duties imposed by EU)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... The European Commission (EC) has decided to impose anti-dumping duties on imports of urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) solutions from Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Algeria. The duty will be [epsilon] 21.47/t for the Ukraine, [epsilon]...

Bolivian urea plant?(to be built)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... Following a feasibility study, financing is currently being sought for a 115,000 t/a urea plant to be built in Bolivia; the first such production in the country. The aim is for the plant to be onstream by 2003. Supply would be primarily to the...

Job cuts in Romania.(fertilizer sector)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... Restructuring of Romania's fertilizer industry is to claim 420 jobs at Nitroamonia. The job losses will be mainly in repair and maintenance staff.

More urea for Pakistan.(Engro Chemicals to expand manufacturing capacity)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... Engro Chemicals is to add another 100,000 t/a of capacity to its urea facility at Daharki, in a second revamp, bringing capacity to 950,000 Pa by 2002. Last year a revamp had added a further 100,000 t/a of capacity.

Work begins at KPI.(Pa Kaltim Parna Industri ammonia plant, Indonesia)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... Construction has begun at the 495,000 Pa Kaltim Parna Industri ammonia plant at Hontang, Indonesia. The $240m plant has been on hold since 1997 because of the Asian economic crisis. Start-up has now been pushed back to 2002, with output...

Fertilizers key to WTO membership.(China)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Negotiations have been taking place between the US and Chinese authorities over China's much-heralded and tong-delayed accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Fertilizers and agriculture had become one of the major stumbling blocks to...

Nigeria revokes licenses.(oil and gas exploration)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Nigeria has revoked 31 oil and gas exploration licenses as part of an exercise to kick-start exploration and production. The licenses were awarded to Nigerian companies between 1990 and 1994, but in nearly all of the cases no surveying work bad...

MTBE to alkylate project.(Kashima Oil Company Ltd. to convert methyl tertiary butyl ether plant)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... In what must be a sign of the times, Japan's Kashima Oil company has decided to convert its MTBE plant to 1,300 barrels per day of alkylate production. Technology licensor UOP, whose InAlk process will be used for the conversion, says tat the...

Methanex joins California Fuel Cell Partnership.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Methanex has joined the California Fuel Cell Partnership, a joint venture aiming to demonstrate the practicability of fuel cell vehicles in California over the next few years. Other members include Honda, Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler, Ford,...

LNG expansion in Malaysia.(Petronas' production of liquefied natural gas)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... Petronas is to expand LNG production at Bintulu on Sarawak by the addition of two 3.8m t/a LNG liquefaction trains. Construction will begin next year, for completion by 2003, and will bring LNG production at the site to 23m v/a, making it the...

In Salah moving ahead.(gas field development, Algeria)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... Development by joint venture partners HP Amoco and Sonatrach of the In Salah gas field in southern Algeria is proceeding. Reserves of around 210bcm have been identified during the three years of exploration, and now a 1,200km pipeline is to be...

Pluspetrol wins Camisea contract.(gas exploration, Peru)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... Argentina's Pluspetrol is leading a consortium which in February won the tender for development of the giant Camisea field in Peru, where estimated reserves total 360bcm. Pluspetrol, which will have a 40% stake in the project is joined in the...

MTBE comes under scrutiny.(use of methyl tertiary butyl ether in motor fuels)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... Although the European Commission has said that it has no plans at present to follow the lead of the US government in phasing out the use of MTEE, the petrol additive is beginning to come under increasing scrutiny within Europe. Germany's...

Route finalised for Tarim pipeline.(China National Petroleum Corp. plans gas pipe line)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... The China National Petroleum Corp has settled on a route for the 4,000 km tans-national pipeline which will bring gas from the remote Tarim basin to fifteen major cities, ending on the coast at Shanghai. Work on the 20bcm pipeline is expected...

Iran to be next for LNG?(planned liquefied natural gas export terminal)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... The Iranian Oil Company is reportedly in negotiations with two Indian state petrochemicals companies: the Oil and Natural Gas Corp and the Indian Oil Corp, concerning the possible siting of twin LNG export terminals in Iran, fed from the vast...

Sweetwater project goes to Western Australia.
May 1, 2000... Syntroleum's Sweetwater gas to liquids (GTL) project, which includes Methanex and Enron as minority partners, has. The move is part of Methanex's new strategy to diversify its interests in view of the poor market for methanol. The $400m project...

Methanex moving towards Darwin for methanol complex.(Australia)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Methanex has signed a letter of intent to purchase 2.9 bcm of gas per annum from Shell Australia and Woodside Energy, who operate fields in the Timer Sea, starting in 2005 (see map, above). This move makes it far more likely that Methanex will...

Sweetwater GTL plant goes to WA.(Syntroleum's gas to liquids project, Western Australia)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... Syntroleum has chosen the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia as the location for its Sweetwater gas to liquids project. The proposed US$400m plant aims to produce 10,000 barrels/day (410,000 t/a) of paraffins and lubricants. It was...

Another MTBE casualty.(Hanwha and Daelim's plan to build methyl tertiary butyl ether plant in South Korea)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... The 100,000 t/a MTBE plant which Hanwha and Daelim planned to build in South Korea has been cancelled owing to the poor prospects for the chemical following its problems in the US. Domestic demand in Korea has also not risen as quickly as...

LNG exports planned.(liquefied natural gas export plant to be built in Egypt)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2000... The expansion of Egypt's gas sector continues apace, with news from British Gas International (BG) and Italy's Edison that they have signed a deal with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) to build an LNG export plant. The site for...

People.(includes information on various executive appointments)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Agrium has announced that Bruce G Waterman will become senior vice president for finance and chief financial officer from April 17th 2000. Mr Waterman, an Ontario accountant with over 25 years' experience in managerial positions, was previously...

Nitrogen 2000 conference report.
May 1, 2000... The Nitrogen 2000 International Conference and Exhibition, organised by British Sulphur Publishing was held at the Hotel Inter-Continental, Vienna, Austria, from Sunday 12th March to Tuesday 14th March 2000. Vienna hosted the Nitrogen 2000...

Laughing gas: not a laughing matter.(Controlling Nitrous Oxide)
May 1, 2000... In an ammonia-nitric acid-ammonium nitrate complex the biggest contributor to the "greenhouse effect" is not the carbon dioxide from the ammonia plant but nitrous oxide in the tail gas from the nitric acid plant. Getting rid of it is, at...

Knitting for victory.
May 1, 2000... Now that the problem of tail gas NOx is essentially solved, attention has been shifting back to the efficiency of ammonia oxidation. The design of the catalyst gauze is crucial and has been undergoing radical development in recent years ...