The Catalyst Review - January 2015 - 1

COMMERCIal NEWS

SPOTlIgHT: Developments in Oil...

back to the future? Oil Replays 1980s...
Between November 1985 and
March 1986, the price of crude
plunged by 67%. Between June
2014 and today, crude prices
have fallen by 57% and could well
head lower. After the mid-1980s
bust, it took nearly two decades
for oil prices to rebound to prebust levels and remain there. Will
it take as long this time? Today,
the discovery and development
of oil from shale rocks means that
OPEC lowered its forecast for the increase in
oil output is faster paced and near non-OPEC supply in 2015, highlighting indiat hand. The oil field investment
cations that lower prices are already affecting
investment. BLOOMBERG NEWS
cycle has shortened. Fasterreacting shale production could
help cut supply more quickly than in the past, restoring market balance without
a decades long wait. But that doesn't mean prices will rebound soon, or return
to the triple-digit levels seen just months ago. However, many economists
and energy analysts believe that prices will probably rebound somewhat
from current levels by the end of the year. Source: The Wall Street Journal,
1/14/2015, p. B1.

Naphtha Crackers gain on Oil Plunge...
The average Europe ethylene contract margin in Q4 2014 was up about 54%
compared to the previous quarter and 120% higher year on year. In the second
half of 2014, the average ethylene contract margin was up 12% year on year,
or up by €51/tonne, and at its highest level since 2008. Even the spot Europe
ethylene margin for 2014 as a whole was up 35%, or €67/tonne. In Q4 2014,
Asia cracker margins based on naphtha were the highest since 2011. Annual
margins were the highest since 2006 in northeast Asia and the highest since
2007 in southeast Asia. Source: ICIS Chemical Bussiness, 1/12-18/2015, p. 11.

u.S. Oil-Export ban Poised to loosen as
Pemex Seeks Light Crude for Refining...
The 40-year old ban on most U.S. crude exports is set to be loosened after
Mexico's state-owned oil company asked for an exception. Petroleos Mexicanos
is in talks with the U.S. Commerce Department to import 100,000 bpd of light
crude to increase Mexico's gasoline production and improve refining. Pemex
would send its heavy oil to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries in exchange. Oil producers
including ExxonMobil and Continental Resources have called for the U.S. to end
the restrictions, saying booming domestic output reduces the need to keep
supplies at home. Source: Hydrocarbon Processing online, 1/9/2015.

anellotech, IfP and
axens form alliance
to Commercialize
biobased aromatics
Technology...
Anellotech, IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN)
and its subsidiary Axens announced
a strategic alliance to develop and
commercialize a new technology for low
cost production of biobased benzene,
toluene and para-xylene (BTX) using
Anellotech's catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP)
process based on non-food biomass. The
technology will address large-scale units
and produce purified aromatics streams
suitable for modern derivative production
processes at a very competitive price
compared with competing petroleum
based technologies, the companies say.
Anellotech announced last year that it can
already supply kilogram quantities of BTX
based on the green technology. Based on
Anellotech's proprietary CFP technology,
patents licensed from the University
of Massachusetts-Amherst, and Axens'
proprietary post-treatment hydrotreating
process, this new technology will open
the way to a competitive production of
bioaromatics from renewable resources
with lower energy consumption and
lower CO2 emissions. The goal of this codevelopment alliance is to combine R&D
with commercial scale-up knowledge and
resources to achieve process development
and commercialization of the CFP
technology in the shortest possible time.
Within the alliance, Anellotech will
continue its research work at the Pearl
River, NY facility on the clean technology
platform for producing biobased aromatics
from renewable non-food biomass.
IFPEN will mainly focus on process
scale-up and hydrodynamic studies at
its Lyon site in France, and Axens will
finalize development and basic plant
design and prepare the technology for
commercialization. It is expected that the
technology will be ready for industrial
implementation in 2019. Source: Chemical
Week online, 1/19/2015.

The Catalyst Review

January 2015

The Catalyst Review - January 2015

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