Chemical News
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USGC isobutane spread over normal butane remains at six-year high Nov 09,2011
The premium for isobutane over normal butane for the Gulf Coast region held at a six-year high of 45.50 cents Tuesday, showing no change since the end of last week as market sources said isobutane supply is short amid talk of a production issue. Platts assessed non-LST isobutane at the Mont Belvieu, Texas, trading hub at $2.2835/gal, down 65 poi...>>>
EURO GAS: Prompt softens under NBP, supported by cold forecasts Nov 09,2011
Approaching cold weather held prompt prices relatively firm on Continental European gas markets for much of Tuesday morning, before the bearish UK NBP hub weighed on sentiment to drag day-ahead gas slightly into negative territory by midday London time, traders said. A short NBP system Monday supported surging prompt prices across Europe, but as...>>>
Chesapeake chief renews call for US policies that promote use of gas Nov 09,2011
The head of US producer Chesapeake Energy on Tuesday once again called for industry and government leaders to adopt policies aimed at stimulating demand for natural gas to take advantage of the nation's shale plays. "There's no reason to believe that a 1% to 2% demand shift in next 10 years is not achievable," Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon tol...>>>
China's CNOOC resumes partial production in Indonesia's SES block Nov 09,2011
The Indonesian unit of China' CNOOC has partially resumed production from four fields in Indonesia's Southeast Sumatra block, or the SES block, after being shut end September due to a fire at its FSO, or floating storage and offloading vessel, a senior government official said Tuesday. "We have deployed a temporary FSO to replace the fire-hit on...>>>
US proposes new five-year offshore leasing plan Nov 09,2011
A new five-year offshore leasing proposal, the first from the Obama administration, favors areas with current leases and does not include a sale off the Virginia coast, the US Department of the Interior said Tuesday. The plan was slammed by Republicans and industry groups, which said it did not go far enough to create jobs or take advantage of U...>>>
Mexican polypropylene demand seen flat on year in 2012 despite 5-6% fall in US Nov 08,2011
Polypropylene demand in Mexico is forecast to be flat year on year in 2012, a source with producer Indelpro said Sunday on the sidelines of the 31st Latin American Petrochemical Association annual meeting in Buenos Aires. "Meanwhile, we estimate US demand is down 5-6%," the source said. Indelpro was keeping a close eye on the decrease in PP d...>>>
German chemical output in Sep down 1.3% at 9-month low: Destatis Nov 08,2011
Germany's chemical sector activity continued to slow in September with a 1.3% month-on-month drop in output, extending the recent downswing into the sixth consecutive month, according to initial data by federal statistics agency Destatis Monday. The official chemicals index fell to a nine-month low of 102.6 points, adjusted for seasonal and work...>>>
Brazil's butadiene CP falls $500 to $2,800/mt for November: producer Nov 08,2011
In Brazil, November butadiene contract prices decreased 25 cents/lb ($500/mt) to $2,800/mt, a slip of 15% from October, a Braskem source said at the 31 APLA event in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the US, November butadiene contract prices went down 25 cents/lb from October as well. Brazilian monomer contract prices usually follow USGC movements, ...>>>
BP, Eni JV signs MOU with Indonesian power utility on CBM sales Nov 08,2011
Vico Indonesia, a joint venture between BP and Eni, signed a memorandum of understanding Friday to sell coalbed methane to Indonesian power utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara, energy and mines minister Jero Wacik said. The MOU is the first commercial sales agreement for CBM in Indonesia. Under the terms of the deal, Vico would sell 500 Mcf/d o...>>>
Dutch, German EEX Oct spot gas trading hits record 2.531 TWh volume Nov 08,2011
Total trading volumes for spot gas on the European Energy Exchange (EEX) bourse hit record volumes of 2.531 TWh for the German GASPOOL, NetConnect and the Dutch TTF market areas in October, according to an EEX statement Monday. This is the highest volume recorded on the EEX Natural Gas Spot Market exchange, against its last monthly record of 2.4...>>>
Non-commercials add 9,769 contracts to ICE Brent net length Nov 08,2011
Non-commercials increased their net length in ICE Brent futures by 9,769 contracts in the week ending November 1, to leave them long 40,247 lots, according to data released Monday by the IntercontinentalExchange. The addition of net longs reverses last week's decline, when non-commercials shed a total of 516 positions. Non-commercials primari...>>>
Continental says plans $1.12 billion capex in 2012 in Bakken/Three Forks Nov 08,2011
Continental Resources plans to spend 64% of its $1.75 billion capital expenditure budget, or $1.12 billion, for 2012 on continued development and production increases in the Bakken and Three Forks formations in North Dakota and Montana, a spokeswoman for the US E&P company said Monday. The majority of the capital expenditure budget will focus on...>>>
Innovia has a bright idea for drinks label Nov 07,2011
Innovia Films and PragmatIC Printing, a specialist developer of imprinted logic circuits, have created an interactive bottle labels that activate a sequence of flashing lights when the bottle is held. Based on Innovia Films’ BOPP label substrate, the prototype electronic labels was previewed at the Packaging Innovations show held at London’s Bus...>>>
EU Sep chemical producer prices fall 0.1% from Aug: Eurostat Nov 07,2011
EU chemical producer prices fell 0.1% month-on-month in September, responding with a time lag to falls in energy and petroleum product costs a month earlier, data from statistics agency Eurostat showed Friday. Energy and petroleum product prices ex-refinery rebounded 1.3% and 2.2% respectively following a drop of 1% and 2.2% in August. Factor...>>>
Singapore's Ellba, Shell lift force majeure on SM supplies Nov 07,2011
Singapore's Ellba Eastern, a joint venture between Shell and BASF, and Shell Singapore have ended their force majeure on styrene monomer supplies with effect from October 31, a spokeswoman for Shell said late Thursday. Shell's customers have confirmed that the company had ended its force majeure on SM supplies to them recently. "We can confir...>>>
Shell's Hazira LNG terminal to hit 5 mil mt/year capacity in Q2 2012 Nov 07,2011
Shell Gas and its partner Total will raise the capacity of their 3.6 million mt/year Hazira LNG terminal in Gujarat, western India, to 5 million mt/year, with the new capacity expected to come online early in the second quarter of 2012, Deepak Mukarji, country head, Shell India corporate affairs, said Friday. "Clearly, we are very upbeat about ...>>>
Norway's Statoil buys Snohvit gas field stake from Hess Nov 07,2011
Norwegian state-controlled Statoil has signed an agreement to buy US Hess' 3.26% stake in the Barents Sea Snohvit Unit and adjacent production licenses for a post-tax amount of NOK1 billion ($177 million), it said Friday. Statoil is acquiring Hess' 11.25% participation interest in PL097 and 8.33% in PL110, together constituting a 3.26% participa...>>>
NYMEX December gas futures contract settles 0.5 cents higher Nov 07,2011
The NYMEX December natural gas futures contract settled at $3.783/MMBtu on Friday, 0.5 cents above Thursday's $3.778/MMBtu close. The contract was moving mostly sideways throughout the day, "with another failure to get anywhere technically meaningful," said Pax Saunders, analyst with Gelber & Associates. "The market still has some work to d...>>>
China to allow companies to set fuel prices in new system: report Nov 07,2011
China's oil companies will be given the autonomy to set retail prices for fuels under a new pricing system to be implemented by the government, depending on international crude oil prices, China Securities Journal reported Friday, citing an unnamed source. The government will no longer issue notifications regarding price adjustments and oil comp...>>>
US' Chesapeake still seeking partners for shale oil joint venture Nov 07,2011
A day after announcing $3.4 billion worth of joint ventures in Ohio's Utica Shale, Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon said Friday in a conference call with analysts that the company is looking to sell partial stakes in three more shale oil plays as joint ventures. In the conference call to discuss Chesapeake's third-quarter earnings, which w...>>>