Nitrogen & Methanol articles from May 2001

Nitrogen & Methanol archives from May 2001

Is bulk so bad ?(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... With its purchase of the agribusiness unit of Rohm and Haas, Dow Chemicals has become the latest major to attempt to move from bulk to speciality chemicals, following in the well-trodden footsteps of ICI and Monsanto. The prevailing wisdom in...

Prices slump as US plants restart.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Ammonia prices continued to slide during March, and markets worldwide were bearish. The January February price spike was caused by soaring gas prices in the US and consequential shutdowns, sucking a great deal of Russian and Ukrainian ammonia...

Outages keep market steady.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Currency problems in Turkey affected urea imports just as they did ammonia, and European demand overall was very low. Adverse weather conditions in Southern Europe are expected to keep demand low throughout spring. Although Ukrainian output was...

Falling gas prices bring relief for producers.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... The March contract natural gas price for the U.S. Gulf Coast was settled early in the month, with the calculated average for Texas and Louisiana at $5.07/mmBtu, representing yet another significant decrease of $1.24/mmBtu, or 24%, from...

Urea plants to restart?(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Speculation is mounting in Mexico that some of the country's idled fertilizer plants may be forced to restart, following a deal between the government and gas-consuming industries that will cap gas prices at $4.00/mmBtu (see Nitrogen & Methanol...

Fighting cuts gas supply to Aceh.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... PT Asian Aceh Fertilizer has declared force majeure on urea contracts for March and April after gas supply was cut off to the company's 600,000 t/a ammonia/urea plant. Gas supplier ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia Inc decided to shut down oil and gas...

Sandvik takes over Choksi.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Sandvik, the Swedish engineering group, has bought out the remaining 49% of Sandvik Choksi Ltd, a joint venture with India's Choksi Tube Company Ltd. The Gujarat-based stainless steel company, which has 200 employees and achieved sales of $3m...

Snamprogetti wins granulation contract.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Iran's National Petrochemical Company (NPC) has awarded the construction contract for a 600,000 t/a urea granulation train at the Razi Petrochemical Complex to Snamprogetti for an undisclosed sum. Snamprogetti will work with local contractor...

Mitsui to move into shipping.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co is to move into ammonia shipping, via its transport and distribution arm Mitsui OSK Lines. It has signed a long-term charter for a 35,000m3 refrigerated ammonia/LPG carrier with Hyundai in South Korea. The...

Qafco IV bids in.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Bids for the Qafco IV ammonia urea complex have now been received. Prequalified bidders are Snamprogetti, Krupp Uhde, MHI, and Kellogg Brown & Root with Chiyoda. The projected plant will have 660,000 t/a of ammonia and 1.05m t/a of granular...

Site secured for ammonia plant.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... India's Oswal group has been allotted a 70 ha site at Hearson Cove for its proposed 660,000 t/a joint venture ammonia plant, Burrup Fertilizers. Construction of the plant is now due to begin by 2Q 2002, subject to government approval and...

Third nitric acid plant for Namhae.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... The Seoul-based Namhae Chemical Corporation has awarded Krupp Uhde the contract to design and build the company's third nitric acid plant, to be sited at Yosu in South Korea, using Uhde's proprietary dual pressure process. The $14m plant will...

EFMA and TFI in information-sharing agreement.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... The Fertilizer Institute (TFI), based in Washington, and the European Fertilizer Manufacturers' Association, based in Brussels, have signed a joint agreement to share fertilizer toxicity testing information by combining the results of their own...

Kafco in the black at last.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Bangladesh's troubled Karnaphuli Fertilizer Co (Kafco) is to make a profit for the first time in the FY Aug 2000 - July 2001. The plant has been dogged by mechanical problems during its seven year history, and was only finally accepted by the...

Kemira looking for Agro buyer.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Kemira is trying to divest itself of its nitrogen business, following more losses for 2000. Kemira Agro lost [epsilon] 39m ($34.5m) for the year to December, the same level as for 1999, in spite of the closure of three million tonnes of...

Urea tax hike.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... The government of Pakistan has imposed a 15% sales tax on all urea, both locally produced and imported, as of April 1st. The increase will represent around Rs 600/t ($9/t) for bagged urea currently selling at Rs 4,000/t ($66/t). Local urea...

Work begins on new nitric acid plant.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Construction has begun on Lovochemie's new 300,000 t/a nitric acid plant at Lovosice. The unit, being constructed by French con tractor Technip, will replace the four ageing nitric acid plants currently at the site, some of which are of 1950s...

Linde profits up.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... German engineering firm Linde has reported increased profits for 2000. Earnings before tax were up 15% to [epsilon] 481m. Group sales were up 36%, mostly due to the acqusition of Swedish gas group AGA last year.

Dolphin moving ahead.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... At the recent Doha gas conference in March, Qatar Petroleum signed a term sheet agreement with the UAE Offsets Group over the proposed $4bn Dolphin project, bringing it another step closer to implementation. The project as currently envisaged...

Bahamas LNG terminal proposed.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... With US gas prices still at high levels and demand continuing to climb, plans to import LNG are beginning to take off. The latest proposal is by Enron, for a receiving terminal in the Bahamas linked by a 90 mile (145km) pipeline to Florida. A...

Gas development to continue.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... BP has announced that it will proceed with development of the gas fields in the Nam Con Son basin, including 50+bcm of gas reserves. The development involves a 360km pipeline to shore and associated gas fired power stations. The ammonia/urea...

Methanex amends NAFTA claim.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... The ongoing legal battle between Canadian methanol major Methanex and the US government has taken another twist. Methanex is suing the US for $970m over the Californian ban on MTBE, which the company claims is "tantamount to expropriation" of...

More gas for Methanex.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Fletcher Challenge Energy, gas supplier to the methanol/synthetic petroleum facilities owned by Methanex in New Zealand, has signed two new gas supply con tracts with Methanex which will last until at least October 2002. Fletcher Challenge now...

Foreign involvement blocked.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Opponents of liberalisation in Kuwait have won a victory in the National Assembly, blocking foreign participation in the upstream oil and gas sector (the so-called "Project Kuwait"). A parliamentary committee has ruled that such a move would...

Technip awarded [H.sub.2] plant contract.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Technip has been awarded a [epsilon] 30m lump sum turnkey contract to construct a new hydrogen plant for RCK Reffinerie GmbH at Schwedt. The plant, which will supply 35,000N[m.sup.3]/h of hydrogen, is scheduled for completion in October 2002....

GTL plant under consideration.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Sasol and Chevron, who are considering a joint venture gas to liquids (GTL) plant, have earmarked Australia as their current preferred site for development. The proposed investment is initially for a 30,000 bbl/day plant, but this is eventually...

People.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... KEMWorks Technology has appointed Joseph V Galluzzo as senior vice president. Mr Galluzzo joins the company from Jacobs Engineering, where he was director of operations/support for Italy, France and Spain. Steven Demetriou is leaving IMC...

Lacking the will to reform?(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... India's fertilizer industry has come under increasing criticism from successive governments because of the ever-expanding subsidy regime which keeps it afloat. Now the ruling BJP has made the first concrete moves towards reining in the subsidy...

The economics of catchment systems.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... In the September/October 2000 issue of Nitrogen & Methanol, Darren Bryce described the use of catchment systems for catalysts in nitric acid plants. Here, David Kelley presents an alternative point of view. The use of a catchment system...

Focus on absorption.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... The environmental benefits of further improving the efficiency of the modern nitric acid plant absorber scarcely merit the marginal cost. But now it is possible to produce acid at azeotropic strength directly. The main thrust of recent...

A new configuration.
May 1, 2001... The advent of knitting techniques literally added a new dimension to ammonia oxidation catalyst gauze technology, opening up almost endless possibilities for optimization. Here J. Neumann, H. Goelitzer and A. Heywood of [dmc.sup.2]...