Insights

Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco) awarded the Taiwanese CTCI two EPC contracts for the expansion and up-grade of its ethylene production facility in Mesaieed Industrial City. Phase 1 will include the installation of new furnaces and an ethylene storage tank with the latest technologies to meet the state-of-art of the environmental requirements. The contract for this […]

ExxonMobil and the Turkish local company TPAO are in discussion to explore the shale gas in Turkey. ExxonMobil is investigating the potential development of Trakya field located in the west of Turkey. According to a survey made in April 2011 by Advanced Resources International (ARI) for the American government about the shale gas fields in […]

Definition: A “cracker” breaks down large molecules from oil and natural gas into smaller ones. An ethylene “cracker” produces base petrochemical “building blocks” which are the first stage in the chemicals manufacturing chain. Comments: Natural gas companies have to remove Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) from methane to make it “pipeline quality.” NGLs are made up of ethane, […]

Shell continues to progress plans to build a proposed world-scale petrochemical complex in the Appalachia region, USA, which could upgrade locally-produced ethane from Marcellus shale gas production.  Shell Appalachia is headquartered in Warrendale, PA, USA, and has 185 employees located in Pennsylvania, with approximately 50 employees located in Tioga County.  With the acquisition of East Resources, […]

After benchmarking the USA who should become a net gas exporter in 2012 for the first time in their history, China has learnt the lesson very fast and decided to develop their reserves of shale gas on fast track to reduce their energy dependency.  The fact is that China hosts 19% of the global reserves of shale […]

Definition: “Shale gas” is the name given to natural gas accumulation is locked in tiny bubble-like pockets within layered sedimentary rock such as shale.  Comment: “Shale gas” is usually found in compact, low-permeability rocks deep beneath the surface. Reserves of this gas are very substantial and well distributed over the globe: they are estimated to represent […]

 Today the Marcellus Shale gas field in USA is considered with its 500 trillion cuf gas reserves as the second biggest gas field in the World after… the North field in Offshore Qatar. Many companies are operating in this field covering  the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, USA. Among the key […]

By the end of March, Kinder Morgan Canada should decide the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline system. The commercial conditions of operations are now in progress enough to allow the completion of the design and planning of the entire system for an estimated cost around $3.8 billion. This expansion will increase the capacity of […]

 “Downstream” covers all the chain of transformations of the oil or gas after the transportation (Midstream). It begins with the refining and it continues with all the cracking operations of the petrochemical industry to produce all the chain of chemical products (Ethylene, Polyethylene, Propylene, Polypropylene, etc…) Comments: By comparison with the “Upstream” (Exploration & Production) […]

  Petronas Chemical Group (PCG) is planning to build a US$20 billion RAPID (Refinery and Petrochemicals Integrated Development) plant in Pengerang, Johor, Malaysia, which borders Singapore, — the largest oil trading hub in Asia. The project is key for grabbing a larger share in the $395 billion global market for specialty chemicals — high value raw materials used in […]