Nitrogen & Methanol articles from November 2004

Nitrogen & Methanol archives from November 2004

The changing face of China.(EDITORIAL)
November 1, 2004... While much attention has focused in recent weeks and months on the admittedly important elections in the United States, little consideration has been given to a change of power in a state that is of growing importance to the world. But the...

Market stable in thin trading.(AMMONIA)
November 1, 2004... The period of stable ammonia prices continued through August as supply and demand caught up with each other, and continued into September as trading quietened down. Yuzhnyy prices hovered in the vicinity of $240/t f.o.b., with Arab Gulf rates...

Indian demand continues price rises.(UREA)
November 1, 2004... During August urea prices began to slide from their record July peak and Yuzhnyy rates dropped as low as $193/t f.o.b. However, a surge back upwards at the start of September was initially caused by fresh Indian buying and continuing tight...

Pressure for high prices remains.(METHANOL)
November 1, 2004... October US natural gas reference prices were settled early in the month, at $5.57/mmBtu for Texas, and $5.81/mmBtu for Louisiana, up $0.545 on September. US methanol demand continued strongly, and there seemed no prospect of a peak in sight....

Fosfertil to build ammonia and urea complex.(BRAZIL)
November 1, 2004... Brazil's Fosfertil plans to build an 800,000 t/a ammonia and 800,000t/a granular urea complex in Brazil, according to local sources, although a final location remains to be decided upon. The proposed $450m plant will be aimed at the domestic...

NPC explores urea jv with Chinese company.(IRAN)
November 1, 2004... Iran's National Petrochemical Company (NPC) and China's Zhuhai Zhen Rong Company are exploring the options for investing in a joint venture ammonia/urea complex in Iran. The complex would be based on natural gas feedstock supplied from the...

Qeshm Island jv may be resurrected.(IRAN)
November 1, 2004... The new mood of cooperation between India and Iran, including reopening the issue of the long-planned gas pipeline between the two countries, has also led to a reconsidering of the Qeshm Island joint venture ammonia-urea project, which was...

Yara in bid for Polish fertilizer stake.(POLAND)
November 1, 2004... Yara, formerly Hydro Agri, is considering teaming up with Polish petrochemicals firm PKN Orlen to bid for fertilizer producers Tarnow and Kedierzyn, although Yara has said that it will not comment on the bid until "there was something concrete...

Chinese-Bolivian joint urea venture.(BOLIVIA)
November 1, 2004... China's Sichuan Lutianhua Co Ltd, together with the Chengda Chemical Engineering Corporation, and Bolivia's IISA Tumpar Group have announced that they are planning to build an ammonia/urea plant in Puerto Suarez, Bolivia. The $160m project,...

Precious metal recovery.(UNITED STATES)
November 1, 2004... Sabin Metal Corp. will offer its recovery and refining capabilities for platinum group metals (platinum, palladium, and rhodium) to North American producers of nitric acid. Kevin M. Beirne, vice president of sales and marketing, said that Sabin...

Urea feasibility study.(BRUNEI)
November 1, 2004... For some time the Sultanate of Brunei has been considering a methanol plant within the country, but now Australian fertilizer manufacturer Incitec Pivot has confirmed that it is part of an international consortium selected to complete a...

Abu Qir considering AN again.(EGYPT)
November 1, 2004... Abu Qir Fertilisers is again considering plans to build ammonium nitrate capacity at its site near Alexandria. The plan to develop AN production at the site was considered during the feasibility study on the Abu Qir IV plant, although in the...

Topsoe to revamp ammonia plant.(CHINA)
November 1, 2004... Haldor Topsoe has won a contract to license its own ammonia technology for a revamp of an ammonia plant in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region for the Ningxia Petrochemical Co, a division of PetroChina. Topsoe will also supply the engineering...

Dyno Nobel to become involved in Dampier Nitrogen.(AUSTRALIA)
November 1, 2004... Plenty River and Thiess, the remaining partners in the Dampier Nitrogen ammonia-urea scheme following the departure of Canada's Agrium last year, have now potentially signed up explosives manufacturer Dyno Nobel to the project, and announced a...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
November 1, 2004... In our Nitrogen Project Listing (Nitrogen & Methanol 270, July/August 2004, p22) it was erroneously stated that the three Egyptian urea plants would use Yara technology. All plants will in fact use Stamicarbon granulation as well as urea...

Work begins on Chinese urea plant.(NEWS IN BRIEF)
November 1, 2004... Work begins on Chinese urea plant. Construction work has begun on a 360,000 t/a ammonia and 600,000 t/a urea plant in Shanxi Province, which is being developed by Tianjin Group, together with ChemChina. A 40,000 t/a methanol line will also form...

Qafco considering fifth plant.(NEWS IN BRIEF)
November 1, 2004... Qafco considering fifth plant. The Qatar Fertilizer Company has confirmed that it is considering a further expansion of its complex at Mesaieed with the possible construction of a fifth ammonia-urea train. Currently at the feasibility study...

Revamp for PotashCorp ammonia plant.(NEWS IN BRIEF)
November 1, 2004... Revamp for PotashCorp ammonia plant. PotashCorp has announced that it is to expand production at its ammonia plant at Point Lisas, Trinidad by 130,000 t/a. The $30m revamp will occur during the first quarter of 2005 and represents PotashCorp's...

Azotara back on the market.(NEWS IN BRIEF)
November 1, 2004... Azotara back on the market. The Serbian government has placed the Azotara Subotica fertilizer complex back on the market after failing to receive payment from BCI-Invest, the Swiss-registered company that won the bid to buy 100% of the company...

IMC plans second methanol plant.(SAUDI ARABIA)
November 1, 2004... The International Methanol Company, a joint venture between the Saudi International Petrochemical Co (with a 65% stake) and a Japanese consortium led by Mitsui and Co (with a 35% share), is planning a second, 1.0m t/a methanol facility at...

Topsoe to build new formaldehyde plant.(RUSSIA)
November 1, 2004... Haldor Topsoe has been awarded a contract for the supply of license, engineering, catalysts, equipment and a fully programmed control system for a 75,000 t/a formaldehyde plant (37% basis) for JSC Acron at Veliky Novgorod. This will be the...

Gas market in flux.(INDIA)
November 1, 2004... India's gas market is going through turbulent times, with various government measures on gas market regulation and third party access to transmission networks still yet to be passed. Gas demand in India is currently at an all-time high, with...

Australia in move to break Timor Sea deadlock.(AUSTRALIA)
November 1, 2004... Australia is attempting to break the deadlock over exploitation of gas reserves in the Timor Sea. There has been considerable argument over royalties from the area, with the UN-run government of East Timor angling for a significant proportion...

LNG frenzy.(AUSTRALIA)
November 1, 2004... LNG export projects are all the rage in Australia at the moment, with several new options on the table. In addition to the Timor Sea plant mentioned above, Australia already exports 11.7m t/a via the North West Shelf trains, now that the 4.2m...

Methanol project progressing.(OMAN)
November 1, 2004... The Oman Methanol Company (OMC) has been making steady progress with its plans to develop a 990,000 t/a methanol plant at Sohar. The company is a joint venture between Methanol Holdings Trinidad Ltd (50%), Ferrostaal (20%) and the Oman Methanol...

Bush win may help Energy Bill.(UNITED STATES)
November 1, 2004... The US Energy Bill, which has been stalled for a year over issues such as drilling in Alaska and liability protection for MTBE producers, may be able to make a comeback in the wake of the US elections. Now that the Republicans have both the...

Statoil looks at more methanol.(NORWAY)
November 1, 2004... Statoil aims to boost methanol production at its Tjelbergodden site by 35%, the company has announced, taking capacity from 900,000 t/a to 1.2m t/a. The [euro]157m debottlenecking will be part of an expansion of the site which also includes an...

GTL demonstrator on-stream.(SOUTH AFRICA)
November 1, 2004... A gas to liquids (GTL) technology demonstrator operated by Norwegian oil major Statoil and Petroleum Oil and Gas of South Africa (PetroSA) in a 50-50 joint venture has started production. The 1,000 bbl/day facility at Mossel Bay is producing...

Syntroleum in GTL study.(PAPUA NEW GUINEA)
November 1, 2004... Hot on the heels of the announcement by Rentech of involvement in a gas to liquid (GTL) project proposal in Papua New Guinea (see Nitrogen & Methanol 271, Sept/Oct 2004, p10), Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Syntroleum has also announced it will...

Methanex searching for more gas.(NEW ZEALAND)
November 1, 2004... Methanex has signed an agreement with Bridge Petroleum and Westech Energy to drill two natural gas wells in Taranaki, in an attempt to try and boost rapidly dwindling gas supplies to the Waitara and Motonui methanol facilities. Methanex has cut...

Coal-based plant proposals continue.(CHINA)
November 1, 2004... China's move towards a coal-based chemical industry continue, as more methanol and derivative plants based on coal gasification are planned. At Puyang in Henan province, Henan Zhongyuan Dahua Group aims to build a $200m 400,000 t/a twin-train...

Pipeline talks collapse.(CHINA)
November 1, 2004... PetroChina has indicated that it will press on with development of the West-East pipeline project in spite of the failure of negotiations with Shell, ExxonMobil and Gazprom over project participation. The three oil and gas majors were angling...

Gas-based projects as well.(CHINA)
November 1, 2004... Not all of China's myriad of methanol and downstream proposals are based on gasified coal. At Erdos in Inner Mongolia ground has been broken on a 400,000 t/a methanol project for the Yihua Group, based on natural gas from local fields. The...

Gas sector opening.(CHINA)
November 1, 2004... China is aiming to attract more investment into its natural gas sector to help fuel the country's growing demand for energy. The government is looking for foreign investors in exploration, development, coalbed methane, and power generation: up...

Stamicarbon.(People)
November 1, 2004... Pejman Djavdan has been appointed vice president of Stamicarbon, the licensing subsidiary of DSM, in the Netherlands from August 1, 2004. He succeeds Mr Feike Hylarides who has accepted another function within the DSM concern in The...

PGM Recovery Systems.(People)
November 1, 2004... Alan E Heywood has been appointed director, PGM Recovery Systems, for the Sabin Metals nitric acid group. His responsibilities will include worldwide technical service, marketing, and sales support for the company's nitric acid customers....

Diary.(Calendar)
November 1, 2004... December 6-9 2004 World Methanol Conference, Barcelona, Spain. Contact: CMAI, 1175 Katy Freeway, Houston, TX 77079, USA. Tel: +1 281 531 4660. Fax: +1 281 531 9966. December 8-10 Fertilizer Association of India Annual...

The market for methanol: overcapacity looms in the methanol market as demand remains stagnant while numerous new large-scale plants come on-stream.
November 1, 2004... The methanol market is currently in a period where demand has shrunk slightly due to the US MTBE phase-out, while a massive new tranche of new capacity is coming on-stream. The move to higher plant sizes has made methanol competitive in a...

Trinidad's mega plants: Trinidad has become the first place in the world where the new generation of 'mega' methanol plants has been constructed, with not one but two such plants coming on-stream this year or next. Nitrogen & Methanol looks at the backgrounds to the projects and the prospects for the future.
November 1, 2004... Trinidad's methanol industry dates back to 1984, when the government-owned Trinidad and Tobago Methanol Company (TTMC) started up its first plant at Point Lisas. It was the first attempt by the government to monetise its natural gas resources...

Methanol project listing 2004.
November 1, 2004... Methanol project listing 2004 Contractor Licensor Company AUSTRALIA n.a. n.a. MGC Lurgi Lurgi GTL Resources n.a. ...

Fuel of the future? The first ever conference devoted solely to dimethyl ether (DME) was held at the Sofitel Porte de Sevres, Paris, from October 12th-14th 2004.
November 1, 2004... Dimethyl ether (DME) is a compound that has been garnering increasing interest in recent years. New, lower-cost methanol processes have unlocked the ability to produce DME at considerably lower cost as well, and this has opened up a variety of...

Keeping it safe and serious: a recent all-day meeting of the International Fertiliser Society considered safety in nitric acid plant operations, the problem of [N.sub.2]O (laughing gas) emissions and the implications for the industry of legislation and greenhouse gas credit trading.
November 1, 2004... The International Fertiliser Society's annual one-day meeting on technology and operations took place at the Geological Society in Piccadilly, London, on 21 October. This year it was devoted to nitric acid and mainly to two issues: the...

Coming of age: after extensive testing in two commercial revamp projects, Stamicarbon's new fluidised-bed urea granulation process has been selected for three sizeable projects in Egypt.
November 1, 2004... Until the 1970s virtually all commercial plants producing urea for fertiliser use converted the concentrated urea solution into particles by prilling, in which droplets cast into the top of a high empty tower solidified in free fall against an...