The ethylene market began 2020 on the rise, slowly but steadily climbing from 16 cents per pound to 22 cents per pound in the first two weeks of the year. Exports from the newly opened Enterprise terminal took cargoes of 9,000 mt to 11,000 mt of ethylene out of the United States, and new ethylene production in Louisiana continued to…
Despite weaker-than-expected Asian LPG prices in the fourth quarter of 2018, the LPG/naphtha ratio suggested that LPG cracking economics remained unfavorable due to the persistent sluggishness of the naphtha market. According to IHS Markit-OPIS data as of Dec. 7, the propane/naphtha ratio was estimated at around 97.6%, which indicates that using naphtha is more profitable than LPG. Most petrochemical producers…
Significant continued growth is expected in U.S. propane production, associated with continued increases projected in Permian production. IHS Markit research points to a 300,000-b/d increase in U.S. propane production by end-2019, pushing the total to near 2 million b/d by the start of 2020, a new record. Domestic propane demand is expected to flat-line, and the amount of propane the…
Politics Complicate Oil Price Analysis We all have opinions on present-day politics and oil, but I’ll avoid polemics and simply observe that President Trump is an active president who complicates any oil price analysis. The president often pursues a unilateral, assertive and frequently adversarial approach to problems. The future course of his decisions, as well as reactions and counterreactions to…
