Nitrogen & Methanol articles from September 2002

Nitrogen & Methanol archives from September 2002

Nervous times. (Editorial).(impact of September 11 on the chemical industry)(Editorial)
September 1, 2002... A year on from both September 11th and Toulouse, the longer-term impact of these tragic occurrences is starting to become clearer, and on the face of it there could be major changes ahead for our industry. The most obvious change so far has...

Price trends.(ammonia market)(Illustration)(Industry Overview)
September 1, 2002... AMMONIA Market evens out Ammonia prices seemed to reach bottom at the start of July, although some uncertainty remained throughout the month. Tightening supply due to production problems limiting the availability at Yuzhnyy was offset...

Tighter regulations on AN storage. (Nitrogen Industry News).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... The European Parliament has approved a proposal to tighten regulations on the storage of ammonium nitrate following the explosion in Toulouse last year. An amendment to the Seveso II directive, governing sites which consume, produce or store...

More casualties of Toulouse blast. (Nitrogen Industry News).(Grande Paroisse plant in Toulouse, France)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... There have been more casualties as the fallout from the explosion at the Grande Paroisse plant in Toulouse continues. One is the NPK blending plant at Melville, owned by Engrais Nord France. The 150,000 t/a NPK plant will close permanently in...

HSC proposes lower AN thresholds. (Nitrogen Industry News).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... The UK Health and Safety Commission (HSC) has proposed lowering the ammonium nitrate notification threshold level following a review prompted by the explosion at the Grande Paroisse plant in Toulouse last year. The HSC is proposing amending the...

FMA says NVZ extension need not affect fertilizer demand. (Nitrogen Industry News).(UK Fertilizer Manufacturers' Association; Nitrogen Vulnerable Zones)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... The UK Fertilizer Manufacturers' Association (FMA) has said that the extension of so-called Nitrogen Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) need not affect the overall application level of fertilizers, but that farmers must be more careful about the timing of...

TFI sets up security working group. (Nitrogen Industry News).(The Fertilizer Institute )(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) in Washington has set up a joint working group to assess and address security issues facing US fertilizer producers in the wake of September 11th. The committee consist of Croplife America, representing crop...

Farmland sheds over 300 jobs. (Nitrogen Industry News).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Farmland Industries has cut nearly 300 jobs from its workforce of over 7,700 in several waves of redundancies following the company filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May. Farmland filed for Chapter 11 protection following 2Q 2002...

Agrium faces losses from Unocal purchase. (Nitrogen Industry News).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Canadian fertilizer producer Agrium has begun a lawsuit against US oil and gas company Unocal over liabilities arising from Agrium's purchase of Unocal's fertilizer assets. According to Agrium, the company faces up to $40m in environmental...

Deadline for bids extended. (Nitrogen Industry News).(Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Company)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... The Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Company (Safco), an affiliate of Sabic, has extended the deadline for bids to build its new ammonia-urea complex (Safco IV) until September 7th. Bidders for the contract, which is estimated to be in region of...

Fresh bidding round in Bahwan project. (Nitrogen Industry News).(Bahwan Trading Company)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... The Bahwan Trading Company (BTC) has asked bidders for the EPC contract for the Sohar ammonia-urea complex to resubmit commercial bids. Three bids have so far been received, and following a six month technical evaluation all are still in the...

Qeshm Island: the saga continues. (Nitrogen Industry News).(ammonia plant planned)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Stymied in their attempts to develop a 726,000 t/a ammonia-urea complex at Iran's Qeshm Island, Indian fertilizer producers the Krishak Bharati Cooperative (Kribhco) and the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative (Iffco) are now looking at a...

Toyo forced to pull out of Iran. (Nitrogen Industry News).(Toyo Engineering )(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Toyo Engineering (TEC) has been forced to withdraw a bid to construct a 675,000 t/a ammonia plant for the Iranian National Petrochemical Company (NPC) at Razi, following new regulations issued by the Japanese Ministry of the Economy, Trade and...

Job cuts at Sud-Chemie. (News in Brief).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... German chemical and catalyst manufacturer Sud Chemie is cutting 200 jobs from its workforce of 4,700 as part of a three year restructuring strategy to reduce costs and boost growth and innovation. The move follows 260 job cuts last year, and a...

Still no sale for Synetix. (News in Brief).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... ICI catalyst division Synetix (formerly ICI Katalco) still has no agreed buyer some months after the parent company put it on the market, although UK precious metals and chemicals firm Johnson Matthey has said that it considers Synetix a "good...

Expansion project begins in China. (News in Brief).(Sichuan Chemical)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Sichuan Chemical has begun revamp work at its urea plant in Chengdu. Capacity will expand from 480,000 t/a to 800,000 t/a by October 2003. The work is being carried out by Japan's TEC as turnkey contractor.

Kemira in admin shake-up. (News in Brief).(reorganization)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Kemira is engaged in a reorganisation of its administration and service departments prior to its proposed sell-off of fertilizer business unit Kemira Agro. The company has said that negotiations over cuts in staffing levels will begin in...

Metacril doubles AS capacity. (News in Brief).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Brazilian chemicals producer Metacril has completed a $35m investment programme at its ammonium sulphate plant at Candeias in Bahia State, increasing production from 80,000 t/a to 200,000 t/a.

Startup for new granular conversion. (Nitrogen Industry News).(PIG, Kuwait)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... PIG in Kuwait has started up its new 578,000 t/a granular urea plant at Shuaiba. The plant was uprated from the previous 330,000 t/a, and the prilling tower replaced by a granulation unit. The work was conducted by Italian contractor Tecnimont....

Shell to phase out MTBE by end of year. (Gas and Methanol News).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Shell has joined BP in indicating that it will voluntarily cease use of MTBE in its Californian gasoline blends by the end of 2002, switching to ethanol blending instead. As well as BP and Shell, Philips Petroleum has also said that it will...

Low demand pushes gas prices down. (Gas and Methanol News).(Untied States)
September 1, 2002... US natural gas production dropped by 3% during the first quarter of 2002 and a further 1% during the second quarter, according to figures released recently. Gas production is now down 6% on the same period for last year. The falling production...

Qafac in refinance deal. (Gas and Methanol News).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Qatar's methanol and MTBE producer, the Qatar Fuel Additives Co (Qafac), is in the process of arranging a refinancing deal over $300m of debt. The debt facility will extend over 8 1/2 years and will be proced at 75 points above the LIBOR rate....

Chiyoda wins contract for methanol plant. (Gas and Methanol News).(International Methanol Co.)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Japanese engineering firm Chiyoda has won the $250m engineering, procurement and construction contract for the International Methanol Company's (IMC's) 970,000 t/a new methanol facility -- see Nitrogen & Methanol 258, Jul/Aug 2002, p10....

New LNG process will cut costs. (Gas and Methanol News).(natural gas liquefaction process from Axens)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... French technology company Axens has launched a new high-performance natural gas liquefaction process which the company has co-developed with the Institute Francais du Petrole (IFP). The Liquefin process claims to achieve 15-20% higher...

New GTL proposal. (Gas and Methanol News).(Petroleum Oil & Gas Corporation, South Africa)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... A new small-scale gas to liquids (GTL) plant is to be constructed in South Africa by the Petroleum Oil & Gas Corporation of South Africa, a joint venture between Norway's Statoil and South Africa's Mossgas. The plant, to be constructed by...

Work begins on direct synthesis DME pilot plant. (Gas and Methanol News).(DME Development Corporation)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... A Franco-Japanese consortium calling itself the DME Development Corporation is to construct a 33,000 t/a pilot plant in Kushiro, Hokkaido, utilising a novel direct synthesis technology for dimethyl ether (DME) production. The consortium...

Government refuses aid for proposed GTL plant. (Gas and Methanol News).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... The Australian federal government has said that it will not consider special financial assistance for an A$12.6bn (US$7bn) GTL project proposal for Barrow Island off Western Australia, although it has said that the Western Australian government...

Western majors sign up to East-West pipeline. (Gas and Methanol News).
September 1, 2002... China's ambitious plans to build a pipeline from one side of the country to the other have received a boost from the involvement of several major oil and gas companies in a $20bn deal inked in early July. ExxonMobil, Gazprom and Royal...

Progress on world's largest methanol plant. (Gas and Methanol News).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Davy Process Technology -- formerly Kvaerner Process Technology -- has completed the process design of a 1.8m t/a methanol plant for Methanol Holdings Trinidad Ltd (MHTL). According to Davy, agreement has been reached with managing contractor...

British Sulphur Consultants. (People).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... British Sulphur Consultants has relocated its North American office. The new contact details are as follows: 17100 W. Bluemound Road, Suite 101, Brookfield, WI 53005, USA. Tel. Jim Orheim on: +1 262 754 0558; Andy Jung: +1 262 754 0559; Fax: +1...

Ecom trading. (People).(Former Ecom manager joins Lamager)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Lamager, parent company of Mexican fertilizer buyer and importer FYPA, has appointed Angelica Olguin as contact administrator for fertilizers, international metals and alumina fro July 7th. Ms Olguin was previously logistics manager of coffee...

Fertilizer Association of India. (People).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Mr RJ Masilamani has resigned as director general of the Fertilizer Association of India. The FAI's deputy director general RG Gupta will be acting director general until a successor to MMR Masilamani is found.

BASF. (People).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... BASF has appointed Jurgen Hambrecht to succeed Jurgen Strube as chairman of the board of directors, and Eggert Voscherau as deputy chairman.

Canada's Prism Sulphur Co. (People).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Canada's Prism Sulphur Co. of Calgary has announced the resignation of Marilyn Olson, the company's vice president of finance, for personal reasons. She will be replaced in the interim by Peggy Gray.

Eastern Europe after privatisation -- Bulgaria as a case study. (Eastern Europe).
September 1, 2002... The past decade has seen great changes in the eastern European fertilizer industry. Companies have been forced to adapt to new market realities and higher feedstock prices, and many companies have been privatised. In this article, Kiril Petrov...

Turning the supertanker. (Russian Gas).(the reform of Russia's Gazprom; impact on fertilizer industry)
September 1, 2002... Over the past couple of years the Russian government has finally begun to tackle the challenge of changing the course of the juggernaut that is Gazprom, the privatised gas monopoly. Nitrogen & Methanol looks at the story so far, and the...

AN/NA meeting. (Ammonium Nitrate/Nitric Acid Meeting).(Calendar)
September 1, 2002... The new merged Ammonium Nitrate/Nitric Acid (ANNA) Meeting is scheduled for October 7-10, 2002 at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, Tucson, Arizona, from October 7th-11th. Running alongside the new combined ammonium nitrate/nitric acid...

Pressure drop improvements in a fixed bed reactor -- two case studies. (Ammonia Technology).
September 1, 2002... Venkat Pattabathula and David Craig of Agrium discuss how significant reduction of pressure drop was achieved with the installation of two different catalyst support systems. The modifications were very minor, inexpensive, resulting in energy...

The other kind of AN. (Ammonium Nitrate).
September 1, 2002... Whatever its future as a fertilizer, ammonium nitrate will continue to be produced for technical uses. A safer alternative to conventional high explosives, it now forms the basis of the vast majority of commercial explosives for civilian use....

Inching towards a solution to the [N.sub.2]O problem. (Nitric Acid).
September 1, 2002... Having cracked the problem of acid-forming nitrogen oxides, the nitric acid industry is still seeking elegant solutions to the nitrous oxide problem Nitrogen has a number of oxides corresponding to its various valence states. There are...