World's Biggest Company - It's Saudi Aramco and not Apple Computers!

Many of us when we think of world's biggest company we will picture Apple Inc. Some of us may also include ExxonMobil. To clear the air, the most valuable publicly traded company in the world, is indeed Apple. 

Since 2007, ExxonMobil has been playing chase and run with  ICBC, the Chinese government linked Bank. ICBC took the helm of the world's biggest company with asset figure from ExxonMobil in 2008. After that, the two companies have been switching the top spot. All of these companies are being publicly traded in the New York Stock Exchange making their asset figure public and known. ICBC took the helm as the publicly traded biggest company in the world in 2013.

Under the radar however, lies another story, by reserve asset figure, the world's biggest company is Saudi Aramco, due to its huge reserve of oil within Saudi Arabia. The company has existed for almost a century,

POLAND Building an Integrated Refining Petrochemical Complex

It is very strange to hear any industrial news from Eastern Europe, let alone for a new world-scale integrated refinery-petrochemical complex.

Poland’s LOTOS and Azoty have signed an agreement for a new joint venture via a special purpose vehicle

Robot to Replace Inspection Engineer in the Chemical Industry

We all know how difficult a decision would be for the management of the refining and petrochemical plants when inspection engineers will need to do critical inspection when the integrity of the plant is in doubt. In chemical industry such as production of highly combustible gases and gases that self-ignite upon loss of containment, this is very dangerous.

A Mexican company has come up with a prototype of RoboPipe, a robot that could do the inspection of

Cyberfuels – A New Type of Gasoline Provides “Virtual Energy”

CyberFuels, a potential contender to the standard gasoline is on its way. Known as Enhanced Methanol Gasoline, it contains 85% methanol, only 14% gasoline and a proprietary CyberFuels patented additive. 

The new type of fuel produces less carbon dioxide and heat and has been known to provide virtual energy,

PETRONAS Criticized for Overpaying Canadian Progress Energy Shale Gas

Malaysian state-oil company, PETRONAS has been criticized by the Malaysian opposition party for purchasing the stakes in Progress Energy at almost double the market price.

Rafizi Ramli, the opposition party strategic director has questioned the move made by PETRONAS started in 2012 for the takeover of Progress Energy in Canada. The multi-billion dollar takeover ensures that PETRONAS secures the rights for shale gas in Canada. The shale gas hyped has driven the natural gas in United States and Canada to shoot up recently but price has since stabilized. The deals was likely made on the basis of high natural gas price and a for a significant premium above the share price. PETRONAS has previously indicated that the premium was necessary to counter a bid from another company for Progress Energy.

Saudi Arabia Poised to become World's 3rd Largest Chemical Exporter by 2015

Saudi Arabia is set to become the world's 3rd largest of chemical exporter by 2015, a radical change from its current standing of crude oil exporter to further downstream exporter. This is part due to Saudi Aramco's vision of becoming the world leader in refinery - petrochemical integrated company by 2020. Saudi Aramco also tops the Middle Eastern market for the highest Foreign Direct Investment into the country in 2013. The growth is expected to catapult its position from world's biggest energy producer to world's biggest energy and downstream products in the world. Already it has offices in Europe, the US and China for marketing of its downstream chemical products.

Artificial Intelligence Will Soon Operate High Severity Chemical Plants

Throughout the history we are now seeing more and more automation and advanced instrumentation for the energy and chemical industry. Production facility are employing less and less production engineers, supervisors and shift operators. Most chemical plant operators are now spending less time at the field and only function as monitoring and at supervisory panel operator board.

While this sounds like another conspiracy, it is actually not and for the betterment of the chemical plants. The usage of high level of intelligence and predictive process control can benefit the hazardous chemical plants

Royal Dutch Shell Entering Iraq with New $11 Billion Cracker Project

Royal Dutch Shell is entering Middle East, in particular Iraq with a force. It has recently announced a downstream petrochemical complex in the southern part of Iraq pending Heads of Agreement signing. 

The petrochemical facility will produce cracked ethylene from ethane gas cracker. The complex is eavesdropped to be costing $11 billion. Shell is the world leader in integrated energy from upstream to downstream and feedstock for the petrochemical facility will most likely to come from Shell presence in Iraq in the Majnoon oil field near Basra. The oil field is currently churning out almost 200kbpd of oil.

It is not clear when the project is expected to come on-stream. Taking the already existing MoU last year, it is expected that the project will be on fast track.

Understanding Refinery-Petrochemical Integrated Complex

Refinery Distillation

To understand a simplified overview of the refinery-petrochemical integrated complex, imagine the crude oil being the main source of the whole feedstock.

The Crude Oil will go under distillation whether it being atmospheric crude distillation or further refinement with vacuum distillation. The main products from the Crude Oil Distillations are:

1. Gas
2. Naphtha

Top 5 Chemical Companies 2013

We are in the midst of end of 2013, and it is that time of lists and rankings. Who made it to the top 5.

Here is our first estimate on who will be on the top 5 Chemical Companies for the year 2013 based on the revenue estimate. This is preliminary list and will be updated after the closure of the financial account and release of information for the year 2013.

No 1 is still on the top spot, BASF.

Top 5 Chemical Companies for 2013 (estimated on total revenue):

1. BASF, Germany

2. Dow Chemical, USA

3. Sinopec, China

4. Saudi Basic Industries, Saudi Arabia

5. Shell, Netherlands

The top spot for the biggest logistic company for chemical industry is still Brenntag, Germany. 

Brenntag specializes in repackaging and distribution of chemicals to small and medium customers and hedging the fluctuations through its bulk purchase of the stock. It also has speciality in product mixing for special types of chemicals.

Buy and Sell Petrochemical Plants

Sometimes the quickest way to setup a chemical plant is simply by buying it off from the second hand market. As much as the idea may sometimes sound a bit off-putting, a lot of established oil and gas companies conduct acquisition of small chemical companies through M&A to position themselves in a specific value chain of the downstream business.

There are many reasons to buy an ageing asset, but one major advantage is the low entry cost and integration is possible especially if you require a feedstock that would otherwise cost alot to transport. A used chemical plant can act as a good buffer as well as hedging. 

There has also cases where it is used for training prior to real setup at mega scale of another complex in order to acquire the latent knowledge especially on operation and marketing side.

One good place to start looking for a running petrochemical plant for sale is : http://www.ippe.com/

Technology: Sinopec R&D Creates Proprietary Toluene & Methanol Plant

Sinopec has achieved another significant remarks in its hall of fame after having successfully installed a methylation unit using Sinopec proprietary technology to produce xylene from methylation of toluene and methanol. The test plant is at Sinopec's Yangzi Petrochemical after a successful industrial test run in December 2012. 

The new technology signifies world's first toluene - methanol methylation technology which opens doors to integration of petroleum and coal.

Saudi Aramco Envision to Become World's Biggest Refinery-Petrochemical by 2020

Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company is setting a new target to become the world's biggest refinery-petrochemical company. The company is currently developing multiple joint ventures in order to reach its vision by 2020. This ambitious target is coherent with the target of the company to further develop its value chain down the chemical line.

Analysts are divided as to how this will balance out with the advent of its brother, SABIC in Saudi Arabia venturing into many chemicals production through its momentous acquisitions of overseas company mainly in Europe.

SABIC Expands to India and China

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) is seeking expansion of its technology arm outside Middle East with new technology centers in Bangalore India and Shanghai China. The company is looking to invest more on innovations, new chemicals and in the area of sustainability development with the help of around 500 professionals in various areas. The new centers are targeted to be opened in 2013 close to year end focusing on new technologies and strategic business research. 

SABIC has been proclaimed as on of the world's leading petrochemical companies due to recent acquisitions and agressive build-up model and expansion attitude surpassing many of other established multinational petrochemical companies.

BASF & PETRONAS Terminated Plan for JV

BASF and PETRONAS have both mutually terminated their Heads of Agreement to undertake a joint venture for specialty chemical production at Pengerang site, for a participation in a mega refinery-petrochemical project in Malaysia's Southern Johor.

Both companies have been reported to have been working together for the specialty chemicals joint-venture following an Memorandum of Understanding in 2010. 

PETRONAS in a separate statement has announced for a new joint-venture proposal for specialty chemicals with a German company, Evonik for a participation in RAPID project in Malaysia.

The Next Boom in Petrochemical Industry: Age of Abundance

Already many oil and gas analysts in particular in advanced petrochemicals are talking about the absurd "Age of Abundance" is coming. The next petrochemical boom will not be about producing the most petrochemical portfolio, integration upstream and downstream, but a focused new materials development which will require certain feedstock especially new plastics and resins and highly advanced nano-plastics.

The hype about the next petrochemical boom will largely be targeting the industry of computer science, supercomputer, 3D printing and media-related consumer goods. The combination of these industries will see

Alfa Laval Offers More Heat Exchangers Via Acquisition

Alfa Laval has made an announcement that it is acquiring ACE (Air Cooled Exchangers) in December 2012. With the new acquisition, Alfa Laval will be able to add custom made air cooled heat exchangers in its portfolio on top of the current established list of heat exchangers. Alfa Laval already has a good base of heat exchangers on offer especially on fluids, centrifugal separation and normal types of heat exchangers.

Mega Petchem: Pertamina Building Its Petrochemical Industry

Indonesian owned oil and gas company, PT Pertamina is getting aggressive in building its petrochemical industry with the expectation of new US$5 billion petrochemical complex by 2017. The facility will be a joint venture between Pertamina and either SK Global Chemical, Mitsubishi or Thailand's PTT Global Chemical. 

The partnership will first focus to jump start the petrochemical products by boosting additinal 500 ktpa of

New Petchem Plant: Worlds Biggest Butanol Plant in Saudi Arabia

Three major operating companies in Saudi Arabia are on a plan to build the worlds biggest butanol plant. Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company, Sadara Chemical Company and Saudi Acrylic Acid Company have signed an agreement for the plant to be commissioned by 2015, a 330 ktpa n-butanol and 11 ktpa iso-butanol. All the three companies are operating companies in Saudi Arabia.