Blogs
Actress Daryl Hannah arrested in oil pipeline protest
Daryl Hannah was arrested outside the White House as she took part in a protest on Tuesday against the planned Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the US Gulf, according to this article today on news.sky.com spotted by Mark...
Seal Sands has real seals
Seal Sands, famous for its chemical storage tanks on the UK's east coast, is full of seals, the Blog hears from hairdresser Michael (47) in an unexpected departure from the traditional hairdressing topics of holidays, local scandal and hair. ...
Europe's chemical sector benefit from more of Gazprom's Russian gas
The news that Russia's Gazprom is expanding storage terminals across Europe in anticipation of increased supplies could be good news for Europe's chemical industry, which relies heavily on natural gas for power generation. Gazprom is almost doubling its underground storage capacities...
China to Russia crude pipeline starts operating
To ease the chronic shortage of crude oil in China, trial operations began on 1 November at the recently completed 1,030km-long Sino-Russian crude pipeline, Chinese state-run media Xinhua News Agency said on Tuesday.Crude was injected into the pipeline from the...
Turkey's Arkem aims to become major regional player in chemical distribution
I recently interviewed the CEO of Turkey's Arkem, a major chemical distributor domestically with ambitious plans to become a major regional player in chemical distribution. This was the first media interview ever for the company's CEO and chairman, Levand Kokuludag but he...
Nabucco withdraws plan for link to Iran
The Nabucco natural gas pipeline project will will no longer link to Iran, the consortium for the multi-billion Euro European/Asian network said this week. In a statement it said:
China's slowdown hits shipping market (Chemicals & The Economy)
The Baltic Dry Index of freight costs (for iron ore, grains and coal) follows changes in global demand for bulk shipping. As such, it is an important leading indicator of future economic activity, and chemicals demand. The blog first noted...
Nord Stream pipeline will benefit chemical producers
Construction of the E8.8bn Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia into Germany officially began last week. This should be good news for European chemical manufacturers who rely on natural gas as a feedstock, or for those planning to introduce more...
Cracker pipeline maps for CIS, Eastern and Western Europe
I've just discovered a fantastic set of resources free to download on the Association of Petrochemicals Producers in Europe website. I've pasted PDFs of the maps below. Click here for a link to these resources which show the locations of crackers,...
Competition concerns for Univar's acquisition of Quaron
The news that global chemical distributor, Univar, is to purchase Dutch-owned Quaron could raise some eyebrows amongst competition authorities in France, according to Marc Fermont of consultancy Districonsult. He says the merger would leave only two major chemical distributors in France, both
