Nitrogen & Methanol articles from November 2003

Nitrogen & Methanol archives from November 2003

Enough methanol to burn?(Editorial)
November 1, 2003... The announcement by Qatar and South Africa of the proposed development of a 15,000 t/d methanol facility at Ras Laffan (see Gas & Methanol news, this issue) has put the cat firmly among the pigeons in the world of methanol. The output of the...

Prices jump on strong demand.(Ammonia)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Ammonia prices soared in early August on strong Indian buying. Turkey and Moroccan tenders also sent prices higher. Yuzhnyy rates started August at $170/t f.o.b., but were pushing the $200/t barrier by the end of the month. Arabian Gulf prices...

Iraq tender hangs over market.(Urea)
November 1, 2003... FSU urea prices climbed sharply at the start of August, driven by fresh demand from Latin America and Europe and fears of future shortages, as September availability was rumoured to be tight. A huge tender for urea for Iraq from the UN Food and...

Prices fall as gas prices retreat.(Methanol)
November 1, 2003... In North America, the October contract natural gas reference price was settled early in the month, at $4.46/mmBtu for Texas, and $4.56/mmBtu for Louisiana, down an average of $0.49/mmBtu from the September contract price. On the supply side,...

Charges dropped against nine Grande Pariosse staff.(France)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Charges relating to the September 2001 explosion at Toulouse have been dropped against nine of the eleven staff of Grande Paroisse who were indicted by the investigating magistrate. Only the plant general manager and the supervisor responsible...

Shipping executives jailed for price fixing.(United States)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Bjorn Sjaastad and Erik Nilsen, the president and vice president respectively of Norwegian tanker group Odfjell Seachem have both been jailed for three months and received fines totalling $275,000 as part of a plea bargain with the US...

Mexican urea plant for Camisea?(Peru)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Mexican state oil company Pemex is considering relocating one of its ammonia-urea units to Chile or Peru, according to Peruvian government reports. Mexico's ammonia and urea capacity is currently mostly idled due to gas supply problems. Mexican...

Sud-Chemie restructures global catalyst business.(Germany)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Sud-Chemie is restructuring its global catalyst production business in order to reap potential benefits and optimise growth. The company is currently appraising its production sites in the US, Asia and Europe, and does not rule out further...

Sinopec to sell urea plants.(China)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... According to reports, Sinopec is looking to sell or shut down its eight urea plants. Revenues have been falling due to high feedstock prices and cheap imports, and although the company's ammonia-urea units' profitability are not reported...

PotashCorp faces hefty bill for nitrogen shutdown.(Canada)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... PotashCorp has said it will take a $200-250m write-down relating to the closure of its nitrogen plants at Memphis, Tennessee, and Geismar, Louisiana. The sum also covers the company's 20% share in the PCS Yumbes potassium and sodium nitrate...

Dampier Nitrogen project agreement lapses.(Australia)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The Project Development Agreement (PDA) for the Dampier Nitrogen Consortium lapsed on July 31st this year. All shares in the company have now reverted back to the original prime mover behind the project, Australia's Plenty River Corp. Plenty...

EFMA launches product stewardship program.(Europe)(European Fertilizer Manufacturers' Association )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The European Fertilizer Manufacturers' Association (EFMA) has launched a product stewardship program for its member companies. The program is a detailed and comprehensive guide to help companies implement product stewardship, which focuses on...

An anti-dumping case continues.(India)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Representatives of Russian and Iranian ammonium nitrate manufacturers have appeared before the Indian Ministry of Commerce's Director General of Anti-Dumping at a meeting in August in order to dispute anti-dumping duties imposed by the Ministry...

Energy consumption set.(India)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The Department of Fertilizers has announced the energy consumption rates that will be used for determining the retention price and hence the subsidy paid to urea manufacturers. Subsidy paid is equal to the difference between production cost and...

Engro, Oman 0il scrap proposed urea venture.(Oman)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Engro Chemical Pakistan and Oman Oil Co. (OOC) have scrapped their proposed joint venture to build an 850,000t/y urea plant in Sohar, Oman, an Engro source said. The parties decided to shelve the proposed project because the capital investment...

Massive methanol to power project.(Qatar)
November 1, 2003... Qatar Petroleum, together with South Africa-based PetroWorld Ltd, a 50-50 joint venture between the state-owned Petroleum Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa and the TransWorld Group of Companies, have agreed to build a mega-scale fuel...

Methanol expansions continue.(China)
November 1, 2003... More methanol plants have been approved by the Chinese government. The Henan Zhongyuan Gasification Company has two 200,000 t/a coal-based plants already under construction, at Zhumadian and Xinyang, both in the eastern Henan province, due for...

Massive gas find triples Brazil's reserves.(Brazil)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... State owned Brazilian oil company Petrobras has announced a major non-associated gas find in the deep waters of the Santos Basin, 130km offshore. The find, of at least 400bcm, effectively triples Brazil's natural gas reserves at a stroke, and...

Camisea in financial woes.(Peru)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Development of Peru's massive Camisea gas field is continuing to prove problematic. Now the US Export-Import bank has rejected a $200m loan request over environmental issues. The Interamerican Development Bank is also dragging its feet on a...

New transit pipeline.(Ukraine)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The Russian and Ukrainian governments have decided to put aside their differences of transit costs and alleged siphoning of gas and jointly construct a new gas pipeline stretching across the Ukraine to help bring more Russian gas to Europe. The...

Methanol FPSO development.(South Africa)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... A huge floating methanol production platform is being planned by PetroWorld, the consortium also planning to develop the massive Qatar project (see above). PetroWorld Limited (a 50-50 joint venture between PetroSA, the Petroleum Oil and Gas...

New hydrogen plant for Chile.(News in Brief)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Technip has been awarded by a $26m EPC contract for a 25 mmcfd hydrogen plant to be located in the Petrox Refinery in Talcahuano, Chile. The developer will be CHBB (Compania de Hidrogeno del Bio-Bio SA), a joint venture between Sigdo Koppers SA...

LNG expansions continue.(News in Brief)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Atlantic LNG has confirmed the equity structure for its fourth LNG train on Trinidad; BP will have a 37.78% stake, British Gas 28.89%, Repsol YPF 22.22% and the National Gas Company of Trinidad 11.11%. Meanwhile, with its own LNG plans still...

Gas blocks to be offered.(News in Brief)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The Saudi government has unveiled the successor to the Saudi Gas Initiative, the obituary of which was in the previous issue of Nitrogen & Methanol (no 265, pp8). Now three blocks in the southeast of the country (in an area originally to have...

Trinidad plant secures customer.(News in Brief)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The 1.9m t/a Methanol Holdings Trinidad plant, due to come onstream in 2005, has secured a long-term supply contract with Celanese in the US, via the Southern Chemical Corporation. Celanese will purchase methanol to cover its own US...

GTL agreement signed.(Iran)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed a heads of agreement with Petro SA of South Africa and Statoil of Norway on a third GTL project, joining two already under consideration. The new project will have a 60,000 bbl/day capacity and...

New LNG trains proliferate.(United States)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved its first new LNG terminal in 25 years. Sempra, the company developing the plant, is now clear to build its 11.5m t/a Cameron LNG terminal at Hackberry, Louisiana. The terminal is...

Correction.(Gas & Methanol News)(Correction Notice)
November 1, 2003... A diagram in our article on plant relocation in the previous issue (Sept/Oct 2003, p56) was mislabelled. In Figure 2, the line marked 'dismantle/ship' should read 'contract preparation and award', and 'refurbishship' should read 'foundation'.

Kemira Oy.(People)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Matti Lapinleimu has been appointed as senior vice president, human resources on the internal management board of Kemira Oy. He replaces Anne Haggren, who is leaving the company. Lapinleimu will also continue in his current role as executive...

Stolt-Nielsen Transportation Group.(People)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Stolt-Nielsen Transportation Group has appointed Hans Feringa as managing director of tanker chartering and Tom Monsen as managing director of terminals. Fering has worked with the bulk chemical transportation group for seven years, most...

Rick van Westenbrugge has left Jo Tankers BV after differences of opinion with the rest of the board.(People)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Rick van Westenbrugge has left Jo Tankers BV after differences of opinion with the rest of the board. John-Odvar Odfjel will be the company's new sole managing director, with a newly appointed director of sales and operations, Hugo Finlay,...

Fertiva.(People)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Rudolf Graf von Plettenburg has taken over as managing director of Fertiva following the departure of previous MD Joachim Felker to join the management of Kali und Salz, the group which owns Fertiva. Felker becomes marketing and distribution...

Ireland's IAWS Group.(People)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Ireland's IAWS Group has appointed Philip Lynch as chairman. Replacing James Molony, who has retired. Lynch, formerly CEO, will be succeeded in that position by Owen Killlan.

DSM.(People)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... DSM has appointed Stefan Sommer as corporate vice president for China. In this newly created post, Sommer will report directly to deputy chairman Jan Zuidam, who is responsible for China within the company's board of directors. With effect from...

IMC Global.(People)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... "IMC Global has announced the resignation of president and CEO John Ferguson, with immediate effect from September 23rd, to "pursue other interests". The company says that it has no immediate plans to fill the CEO role and that the phosphate...

Diary.(Calendar)
November 1, 2003... November 10-12 CMAI World Methanol Conference, Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Contact: CMAI, 1175 Katy Freeway, Houston, TX 77079, USA. Tel: +1 281 531 4660. Fax: +1 281 531 9966. December 7-9 Fertilizantes Cono Sur Conference &...

Methanol after MTBE: by the start of next year a ban on the use of methyl tert-butyl ether is expected to be in place in many US states, removing the bulk of demand for this compound. This article looks ahead to a future for the methanol industry that does not include US MTBE; around 15% of global methanol demand.
November 1, 2003... Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) is produced by the reaction of methanol with isobutylene using an acid catalyst. Some 95% of global demand for MTBE is as a fuel blendstock. The chemical demand is for production of methacrolein and methacrlyic...

A shipbuilder's view: Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd (DSME) is a major constructor of ammonia and LPG tankers. David Hayes spoke to executive director Duck Yull Lee at the company's South Korea offices about the specifications of ammonia/LPG tankers and the market for such vessels.
November 1, 2003... Construction orders for LPG tankers are expected to increase over the next few years as shipping companies begin to add tankers to their fleets to supply the forecasted growth in demand for LPG, ammonia and other similar gases in Asia,...

Still chasing the Holy Grail? methanol has been widely touted as a fuel for fuel cells in the next generation of vehicles, and even for static applications. However, it is still in competition with a variety of other potential fuels. Nitrogen & methanol reviews progress in this area.
November 1, 2003... Demand for methanol is still dominated at present by the three main chemical derivatives; formaldehyde, acetic acid, and methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE). Because of their use in a variety of end-uses, many to do with fibres, plastics, and the...

Methanol project listing 2003.
November 1, 2003... Methanol project listing 2003 Contractor Licensor Company AUSTRALIA n.a. n.a. MGC Lurgi Oel Lurgi Oel GTL Resources Gas Chemie Gas Chemie...

GHR--out of the wood yet? Using recycled process heat to drive the steam reforming reaction rather than doing it in a furnace has considerable attractions from the point of view of site space and economics. But there is an awkward metallurgical problem when operating at low steam: carbon ratios. Has it been solved yet?(Methanol/F-T Synthesis Gas)
November 1, 2003... Synthesis gas--a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide--is the common intermediate in the production of ammonia, hydrogen, methanol, "oxo alcohols", FischerTropsch hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. In the case of ammonia and...

New ammonia WHB internals raise capacity, enhance reliability: Brown Fintube has introduced an alternative tube bundle design which can be directly substituted for the bayonet-tubed internals of the 101-C main process gas coolers in some older ammonia plants.(Revamping)
November 1, 2003... In a conventional ammonia plant which generates its raw synthesis gas in a fired tubular reforming furnace, there are three potential major sources of high-grade heat. These are the hot exhaust gas passing out of the furnace box, the process...