Category: Outlook & Reviews

The risk of a second Covid-19 wave over the winter period continues to fuel the trend of forward trading of sulphur cargoes. Downward pressure in some sectors for demand is likely as the macro economic forecast remains challenging.

Meena Chauhan, Head of Sulphur and Sulphuric Acid Research, Argus Media, assesses price trends and the market outlook for sulphur.

In a few short years Abu Dhabi has grown to become the world’s largest sulphur producer and exporter, and new sour gas projects will lead to additional sulphur recovery capacity, provided they can overcome economic challenges.

Reg Adams of pigments and titanium dioxide consultancy Artikol reviews the demand for sulphuric acid in the manufacture of TiO2 , and the prospects for consumption over the next few years.

Do you remember Peak Oil? This was the theory, driven by research originally conducted by petroleum geologist M.K. Hubbert in the 1950s, that oil production inevitably followed a bell curve, with supply eventually peaking as easier reserves were exhausted, leading to an inflexion point in production and a long tailing off. Originally Hubbert was talking solely about US oil production, and he seemed to have been borne out by the evidence. But a lack of discoveries of new large fields in the 1990s led to a revision of the theory that predicted a global production peak in 2005-6, potentially leading to rapidly rising oil prices until demand destruction occurred.

Fluor’s case study of recently constructed ultra-sour gas treating facilities provides new information about the operation of DGA-based AGRUs. B. Lynch and C. Graham of Fluor Corporation discuss how using this knowledge and leveraging the recent improvements to process simulators in the gas sweetening space, Fluor has developed an efficient, flexible, and cost effective solution in the two-stage absorption process to maximise mercaptan removal from ultra-sour gases with minimal equipment.

The ammonia market continues to be oversupplied, and prices have dropped to historically low levels. Yuzhnyy rates dropped to $175/t f.o.b. in July. In spite of shutdowns in Trinidad and elsewhere, demand remains sluggish and recovery from the Covid epidemic is patchy, especially in the US.

It’ s not a very worthy thought, I’m afraid, but I must admit it was my first reaction on seeing the terrible pictures from Beirut on August 4th. The explosion that ripped through the centre of the historic and much troubled Mediterranean city was captured from many different smartphone cameras, and watching the expanding vapour cloud from the supersonic shockwave, and witnessing the sheer size of the explosion, it seemed immediately evident to me that it had to be a high explosive responsible, not the fireworks that could be glimpsed sparkling beforehand in the smoke from the burning warehouse. The rising cloud of orange-brown nitrogen dioxide that followed the blast was the clincher – it looked like it was ammonium nitrate yet again.

Troubleshooting and root cause analysis help to identify and solve problems in the operation of nitric acid plants and to prevent future reoccurrences. Johnson Matthey, Casale and Sabin Metal Corporation discuss their approach to solving problems in nitric acid plants to improve plant reliability and efficiency and to avoid unplanned shutdowns, costly replacement of equipment and loss of production.

Alistair Wallace, Head of Fertilizer Research, Argus Media, assesses price trends and the market outlook for nitrogen.