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 Guide to OPEC
OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, was founded at a conference in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1960. The principal aim of the organization is to coordinate crude production output in order to protect the interests of its 11 member states.
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Updated: February 23, 2007 | |  Latin America looks to foreign investment
Latin America has agreed on numerous projects in 2006 that will mean increased exploration and production, as well as improved cooperation between Latin American countries and the rest of the world.
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Updated: November 6, 2006 |
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 Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipline officially opens
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which officially opens on Thursday 13 July, constitutes the most important key to date in unlocking the energy riches of the Caspian and bringing them to global markets.
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Updated: September 1, 2006 | |  Ernesto spares energy futures another slump
Debbie was harmless and Ernesto may still prove to be nothing more than another small storm in a teacup, but the vague threat of nasty weather in the Gulf of Mexico spared energy futures a major slump the week of August 21.
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Updated: August 28, 2006 |
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 Prudhoe Bay Outage
With crude production from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay field down indefinitely, and tight supplies of short-haul Latin American crudes, typical Alaska North Slope crude buyers may have to seek crudes from as far away as West Africa or Asia to fill the void on the US West Coast, market sources said. More...
Updated: August 7, 2006 | |  African continent to remain a key spot for investors
The African continent will remain a key spot for hungry investors keen to take advantage of bumper revenues as explorers spurred on by high oil prices seek out previously under-explored frontier regions.
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Updated: July 20, 2006 |
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 Iran a phantom menace in latest Middle Eastern conflict
Oil prices thundered into record territory July 14, and then again on July 17 as Israel launched military strikes against Lebanon to smash Iranian-backed Shi'ite Hezbollah guerrillas north of its border.
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Updated: July 17, 2006 | |  USGC 3%S prices remain weak while Russian M100 fuel oil floods market
Prices for USGC 3%S have remained weak for May relative to next-month 3% sulfur fuel oil swaps, as heavy imports of Russian M100 fuel oil this month and a lack of incremental arbitrage opportunities in the Americas or to Singapore weighed on the spot market.
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Updated: May 26, 2006
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|  $100/barrel oil-coming soon to an exchange near you
$100/barrel oil has gone from sensationalist claim to credible reality. Little more than a year ago, Goldman Sachs was castigated for releasing what was then seen as a self-serving report warning that oil could see a 'super spike', with crude prices reaching as high as $105/barrel.
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Updated: May 16, 2006
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Salt Lake City-ExxonMobil sees a "fairly rapid" phase-out of MTBE-blended gasoline by US refiners ahead of the May 5 repeal of the US oxygenate mandate, CEO Rex Tillerson said March 21 at the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association annual meeting.
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Updated: April 6, 2006 |
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 Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings
Revenues and profits for many firms surged last year over previous years. The turnaround from our last global survey is dramatic. Asset- and revenue-rich integrated oil and gas companies (IOGs) dominate the top rungs of the 2005 Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings.
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Updated: March 20, 2006 | |  Crude Benchmark Analysis
For the last 20 years, price discovery in the oil market has been concentrated around three main regional crude oil benchmarks, also known as 'marker' crudes: WTI from the US, Brent Blend from the UK North Sea and Dubai, or Fateh, crude from the United Arab Emirates.
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Updated: March 7, 2006 |
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 North Sea Rig Utilisation
After a subdued spell at the turn of year, the North Sea rig market sprang to life during the past few weeks, with a high level of activity, featuring the signing of a number of new and extension contracts.
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Updated: February 27, 2006 |  |  Platts Ethanol Guide
Increasingly concerned about the cost of oil and the risks associated with importing it, bipartisan groups of House and Senate lawmakers have filed bills seeking to give biofuels and alternative fuel vehicles a prominent place on American highways. More...
Created: December 21, 2005 |
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 Gasoline, diesel, and jet outlook
The Bush administration is considering establishing regional reserves of gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel to help avert the type of shortages that occurred following hurricanes this year, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told reporters late October.
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Updated: November 7, 2005 | |  Hurricane Update
Platts provides a daily offering of a status report on energy industry recovery efforts in the US Gulf. Detailed information about industry-specific recovery efforts are provided as well.
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Updated: November 14, 2005 |
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 Latin American E&P
Latin America is buzzing with exploration and production activity, especially where countries are teaming up for joint benefits. Many countries in Latin America are steering away from costly imports and are instead delving into untapped resources at home.
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Updated: October 14, 2005 | |  Focus On Yukos
Key Yukos shareholder Menatep Group has joined a Societe Generale-led creditor syndicate that Friday filed a $480-mil claim against the embattled Russian oil producer in a Dutch court, Russian business daily Kommersant reported August 23.
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Updated: August 23, 2005 |
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 Energy policy focus now shifts to bureaucracy
President Bush on August 8 signed Energy Policy Act of 2005 into law against a backdrop of the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., triggering a number of rulemakings and other actions by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
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Updated: August 8, 2005 | |  Fuel Management
World oil reserves were almost unchanged at the end of 2004 from the same time a year earlier as new discoveries barely covered the amount of oil produced, BP said June 14 in its 2005 statistical review of world energy.
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Updated: June 28, 2005 |
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|  What is "peak oil" and why should we worry?
Peak Oil is entering the mainstream. A phrase once considered synonymous with "The End of Oil" -- the point at which global oil production reaches its peak -- is now a subject for serious debate.
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Updated: June 1, 2005
| |  High Indian, Chinese demand squeezes supply, keep prices volatile
Oil prices have been notoriously volatile in recent years and 2005 has seen a continuation of this recent trend, whilst prices have established new all-time highs in most energy markets.
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Updated: April 19, 2005 |
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 Platts Gasoline Guide
High oil prices should propel US retail regular-grade gasoline prices in May to a monthly average price of about $2.35/gal, although weekly prices and some regional prices will likely be higher.
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Created: April 14, 2005 | |  Oil prices merit re-examining of supply/demand fundamentals
Last year's relentless upward surge in oil prices was different from other increases, and not only for the heights it reached. Never before had the benchmark price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude passed even $45/bbl, much less $50. More... Created: February 3, 2005 |
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|  Impact of Recent Oil Price Spikes
The effect of high oil prices, which reached historic highs on August 20, on European energy commodities and metals.
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Created: September 9, 2004
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Iraq's oil ministry is evaluating offers from 14 international companies for a contract to conduct a technical study on the country's major oilfields-north and south Rumaila in the south and Kirkuk in the north-the first concrete step by the interim government toward rebuilding the country's decimated oil industry. More...
Updated: August 24, 2004 |
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 Energy In China
China is the largest fuel oil importer in the Asia Pacific region. The country's growing energy requirement has been spurred by escalating industrial growth in the country.
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Created: August 18, 2004 | |  Shell Reserve Recategorization
Under regulatory authority investigation in three countries, facing a US Justice Department probe, with its hitherto rock-solid long-term borrowing downgraded by all major ratings agencies and its worldwide estimated proven reserves just slashed by 22% – this hardly sounds like the blue chip oil major Royal Dutch/Shell. More...
Updated: May 10, 2004 |
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 The Bosphorus Tanker Traffic Issue
The Bosphorus 'issue' is a thorny one. Conflicting interests are in-built. The waterway is surrounded by Turkish territory, but it is the single passage to the Mediterranean for the landlocked states of the Black Sea. Not least, it forms a major maritime link for Russia.
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Created: March 8, 2004 | | |
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 Private-equity giants to buy TXU in $45 billion deal
Dallas-based TXU Corp. would pass into private hands if its many-sided, historically large agreement with private-equity giants wins approval and does not run into deal-breaking moves by Texas policymakers.
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Created: February 26, 2007 | |  Global average temperatures to rise 0.2 degrees C per decade
Global average temperatures are set to rise by an average 0.2 degrees Celcius per decade over the next 20 years, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
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Created: February 8, 2007 |
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 'Muted' M&A activity in Asia and Australasia for much of 2006
Merger and acquisition activity in the regional power market remained a muted business during much of 2006, in common with the situation pertaining during the past few years.
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Created: February 7, 2007 | |  New capacity markets for power in East: Do they work?
If it sticks to its tentative schedule, the PJM Interconnection is within months of an auction that will mark the debut of a new capacity market. It is scheduled to be followed, in less than a year, by the first auction in the new forward capacity market for ISO New England.
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Created: January 31, 2007 |
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 Retail headroom increases across board as Texas starts new retail pricing regime
Utility affiliates in Texas have downplayed the change that took place January 1 as the price to beat expires for utilities in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas , but retail marketers have gained customers and hope to continue that trend in 2007, sources said as 2006 came to a close.
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Created: January 9, 2007 | |  European power: Fiddling at the margins
Creeping re-regulation of Europe's electricity sector in recent months has betrayed a lack of confidence in the EU's internal market project, at a time when the European Commission is planning an ambitious drive to complete it.
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Created: November 29, 2006 |
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 Risk and electricity price dynamics
The Platts Energy Research Initiative aims to forge close links with the academic world by providing timely and accurate data as a basis for independent energy research.
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Updated: November 21, 2006 | |  Enron's biggest trial finally arrives
Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, the two top leaders of the once-giant energy corporation, began trial January 30 on fraud and conspiracy charges of manipulating earnings statements and deceiving investors, analysts and others about Enron's massive debts and failed ventures.
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Updated: October 6, 2006 |
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 Bulgaria braces itself for EU membership
Bulgaria and Romania are set to become the European Union's newest members on January 1, 2007. In a two-part series Platts Paul Whitehead looks at the preparations and the challenges ahead for their energy sectors. First stop: Bulgaria. More...
Updated: September 28, 2006 | |  China and India look overseas
Ballooning demand for energy resources in China and India has prompted Beijing and Delhi to place energy security at the heart of their foreign policies.
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Updated: September 20, 2006 |
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 Industry infrastructure struggling to meet growing demand
Today's electricity systems are overstressed and overloaded, and investment in new infrastructure is critical to maintaining reliability, said American Electric Power Managing Director Calvin Crowder.
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Created: September 11, 2006 | | Ernesto spares energy futures another slump
Debbie was harmless and Ernesto may still prove to be nothing more than another small storm in a teacup, but the vague threat of nasty weather in the Gulf of Mexico spared energy futures a major slump the week of August 21.
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Updated: August 28, 2006 |
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|  US power acquisition deals are getting made, but will they close?
The US power industry isn't lacking for merger activity -- about $58.5 billion worth of deals are pending, or have been announced or completed in 2006, including the first hostile takeover attempt in some time. More...
Created: June 7, 2006
| |  EC inquiry opens competitive can of worms
The initial findings of the European Commission's competition inquiry into the internal energy market confirm what many had suspected: Europe's newly-opened energy markets are not working properly yet.
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Created: February 16, 2006 |
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 Calpine on the brink
Merhcant power giant Calpine has been involved in a dispute with debt holders over its use of more than $300-mil it received from the sale of its natural gas production assets earlier this year, and is widely considered to be on the verge of filing for bankruptcy protection.
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Updated: February 13, 2006 | |  Energy in East Europe
One does not need a crystal ball to know that southeast Europe is the place to be this year and next for investors looking for acquisition action in Europe's electricity and gas markets. A host of assets across the region are already under privatization with more to come up for offer over the course of the next year.
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Updated: February 6, 2006 |
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 California's resource planners think long-term
Coal-fired electric generating plants and long-haul transmission lines are making a comeback as California's resource planners think long-term. Officials are looking 1,000 miles east to the open spaces of Wyoming to play host to the next generation of baseload generation.
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Created: October 6, 2005 | |  European power use rises 1.7%
Mainland Europe used 1.7% more power last year, less than in 2003 on mild weather conditions, the Union for the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE) said in its 2004 system adequacy report published on July 15. Generation capacity increased by 4%, mainly on a rise in combined cycle plants and renewable sources of up to 20%.
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Created: August 12, 2005 |
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 Asia Pacific acquisition market in the first half of 2005
The first half of 2005 again saw relatively muted merger and acquisition activity in the Asia-Pacific region. However, at the end of June there was a spurt of activity, while several major deals agreed during the first half of the year or earlier were still awaiting completion.
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Created: August 8, 2005 | |  With more companies reporting sales, impact of financial firms on market becomes clear
Nearly 290 companies made about 1.35-bil MWh of wholesale power sales in the first quarter of 2005, compared with 262 companies reporting about 1.46-bil MWh in sales for the same time period last year, according to data submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
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Created: August 2, 2005 |
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 Polish elections mark turning point for the energy sector
Membership of the EU's common energy market creates new development prospects for the Polish energy sector but it also necessitates significant changes. Poland's caretaker coalition government has succeeded in moving national energy legislation toward the EU energy market model. More...
Created: June 29, 2005 | |  US Power: Mergers & Acquisition Activity
Standard & Poor's is not yet convinced there is a new wave of utility mergers and acquisitions under way, but the rating agency is sure such deals are generally bad news for bondholders.
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Created: June 8, 2005 |
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 Analysts predict booming market
Policy developments in North America and Europe, along with the emergence of markets in countries like China and Brazil, could spur a booming market in renewable energy this year, industry analysts and market players predict.
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Created: May 19, 2005 | |  Could green certificates transform the European renewables market?
Are green certificates the key to realizing the EU's goals for renewables? Platts looks at prospects for green certificates, and their current use in the market.
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Created: April 5, 2005 |
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 MISO faces other issues, but new market is center stage in policy debate
Implementing the ISO markets, which amount to a monumental change in market structure, is the biggest challenge facing the Midwest right now. But an in-depth look at the MISO region shows it's far from the only challenge.
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Created: April 1, 2005 | |  Essential to economies, electric power is in the spotlight worldwide
While assuring the public that another blackout as widespread as the one of August 2003 is unlikely, federal and state regulators also say that American transmission grids operate under vague and voluntary reliability standards and that attempts to audit utilities' compliance with those standards are marred by inconsistency and subjectivity. More...
Created: March 16, 2005 |
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 US New Generation 2004
The US added nearly 26,000 MW of nameplate new generating capacity in 2004, according to Platts POWERdat. These figures show a nearly 50% reduction in 2003 new generation additions of more than 52,000 MW.
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Created: February 2, 2005 | |  California Power Crisis Refunds Settlement
On September 9, the appeals court dismissed California's challenge of FERC's market authority, but ruled that FERC was wrong in deciding that it could not make retroactive refunds stretching back further than the October 2, 2000, date that the agency had set.
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Created: December 13, 2004
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 Emissions Marketplace
The dress rehearsals are over. After a last minute change of cast, when President Vladimir Putin decided that Russia should also star in the world’s first carbon trading spectacular, the directors of the show in Brussels are now confident there will be no last minute hitches. The EU emissions trading scheme is ready to roll. More...
Updated: December 13, 2004
| |  Broadband over Power Lines
While there are still questions about the regulatory treatment of broadband over power line (BPL) service at the state level, both US federal and state regulators are going out of their way to say they do not intend to stifle broadband deployment with restrictive regulations. More...
Created: November 22, 2004
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 US Election 2004
President George W. Bush's energy policies are likely to be unchanged in his
second term.
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Created: November 4, 2004 | |  EU Accession Countries: Outlook On Gas And Electricity Sectors
All eight former Communist states have worked near miracles over the last 15 years in reforming their energy sectors to comply with EU legislation, notably the electricity and gas directives of 1996 and 2003.
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Created: June 3, 2004 |
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 Energy Utility Web Sites
The Internet-savvy, transaction-driven, financial services industry has much to teach the energy industry about effectively serving customers online. Financial firms have learned how to get their customers to use the web and keep them happy and loyal. Energy companies could copy their approach and net the same results. Most have not. More...
Created: March 24, 2004 | |  UK ROC Price Set To Crash
The price of Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) could crash by nearly a third to just over GBP33/MWh by 2007, new research by Power UK shows.
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Created: February 23, 2004 |
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 Interview With US DOE's Abraham
As he enters the final year of the Bush Administration's term Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham aims to fulfill the top priorities on President George W. Bush's energy agenda. More...
Created: February 2, 2004 | |  WorldCap Study 2003: The Strategic Guide to Global Power Markets
In the last five years, N America experienced unparalleled power plant development and construction, with natural gas-fired generation emerging as the dominant technology. The study by Platts Research & Consulting reveals that considerable opportunities exist in overseas electricity markets for power plant developers. More...
Created: October 6, 2003
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MTBE Phase out
Salt Lake City-ExxonMobil sees a "fairly rapid" phase-out of MTBE-blended gasoline by US refiners ahead of the May 5 repeal of the US oxygenate mandate, CEO Rex Tillerson said March 21 at the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association annual meeting.
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Updated: April 6, 2006 | |  The impact of freight rates on petrochemical markets
High freight rates have become a determining factor in market dynamics. For instance, rates have at times blocked otherwise wide- open arbitrage windows, and have raised the outright value of spot commodity sales.
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Created: September 13, 2005 |
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 Daily Polymer Benchmarks
On the day Platts introduces daily global polymer assessments for LDPE, LLDPE, and PP in Asia, the US, and Europe, Platts.com speaks to Senior Petrochemicals Editor Ihsan Rahim to find out about recent polymer trading activity.
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Created: April 18, 2005 | |  Petrochemicals sector struggles with mature market, high costs
The global polymer business is emerging from the worst time in history, Robert Bauman, VP and director of polymers for Nexant, said October 6 at the Petrochemical World Trade Conference in Houston. While the polymer business has not been profitable over the past few years, Bauman noted, it is poised to return to profitability.
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Created: February 17, 2005 |
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 European Plastics Guide
The global polymer business is emerging from the worst time in history, Robert Bauman, VP and director of polymers for Nexant, said October 6 at the Petrochemical World Trade Conference in Houston. While the polymer business has not been profitable over the past few years, Bauman noted, it is poised to return to profitability.
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Created: October 15, 2004 | |  Security in the US Chemical Sector
A look at security in the petrochemical sector three years on since 9/11. There are some 15,000 facilities across the US that produce, store or in some manner handle hazardous chemicals.
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Created: September 21, 2004 |
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 Steel industry mergers could lead to stabilization
Consolidation in the steel industry is beginning to resemble that of the oil business during the second half of the 1990s, according to analysts. But it is not just the steel makers themselves that want to become less-fragmented.
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Updated: April 13, 2006 | |  US aluminum outlook mixed; energy prices weighing
The US aluminum market outlook is a bit mixed through next year, as both positive and negative factors might keep aluminum prices relatively stable going forward, although high energy prices are expected to weigh heavy on the market.
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Updated: September 28, 2005 |
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 Steel gravy train dries up as stocks surge, hot-rolled near $550
Steel stocks are building in North America, at the mills and service centers, and as the year's midpoint draws near it's clear 2005 won't be a repeat of 2004's run of historically higher prices and blistering demand.
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Updated: May 19, 2005 | |  Alumina Outlook 2005
New capacity, mainly from Australia and China, coming on stream in 2005 looks set to help ease the supply/demand balance in the global alumina market and exert some downward pressure on prices, according to Macquaire Bank's Adam Rowley. "The market is easing up over the next twelve months." More...
Created: January 4, 2005 |
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