Magazine: Sulphur

Claira Lloyd, Sulphur Editor and Sulphur Fertilizers Team Leader, Argus Media, assesses price trends and the market outlook for sulphur.

Kuwait is in the middle of a major overhaul and expansion of its refining capacity, as well as boosting LPG output and sour gas processing.

J. C. Bourdon, F. H. Brown and P. J. Photos of Streamline Innovations Inc. present the development and commercialisation of the Valkyrie™ process, which employs new chemistries and advanced control systems to remove H2 S from natural gas at size scales ranxging from single wells to entire fields, providing an operationally sustainable and commercially attractive alternative to standard H2 S removal technologies.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) has awarded two EPC contracts with a total value of more than $1.65 billion for the offshore Dalma sour gas development, 190 km northwest of Abu Dhabi city. Dalma is one of the fields in the offshore Ghasha ultra-sour gas concession, which ADNOC views as central to the UAE achieving self-sufficiency in domestic gas supplies.

Middle East supply will return to normal at the start of the second quarter with bottlenecks in the UAE and maintenance in Saudi Arabia at an end. But this is unlikely to result in lower Middle East f.o.b. prices until the second half of April, if not early May. This is because buyers who found it hard to find March loading cargoes will snap up any April product as soon as it’s made available.

Charlotte Hebebrand, Director General of the International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA), will end her term with the organisation on May 1st. IFA’s Senior Director of the Agriculture Service, Patrick Heffer, will serve as interim Director General as of 1 May, until a new permanent Director General can be proposed by IFA’s Board of Directors and approved by the membership at the organisation’s General Meeting, with the aim of having a new person in place by July.

Now in its second year, SulGas 2020, South Asia’s only conference on gas treating and sulphur recovery, took place 3-4 February 2020 at the Novotel – Juhu Beach, in Juhu, Mumbai, India.

R. Kranenburg of Duiker discusses the latest applications of SCO units in refineries and petrochemical complexes. The SCO unit is typically integrated in the sulphur recovery unit and is intended for processing ammonia, while also treating the tail gases from the upstream SRU.

A complete listing of all articles and news items that appeared in Sulphur magazine during 2019.

Canadian Press reports in December have highlighted concerns that the new tighter IMO rules on sulphur content of marine fuels, which came into force on January 1st, could lead to reduced demand for oil sands bitumen and syncrude. Canadian oil output has been steadily increasing over the past two decades, mainly due to expanded bitumen recovery, which now accounts for 50% of Canada’s 4.6 million bbl/d of oil production. However, the discount for Western Canadian Select bitumen blend crude prices versus North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate could almost double to $30/bbl in January, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie, averaging US$23-24/bbl for most of 2020, as US and other refiners use less heavy, sour oil and switch to lower sulphur feeds to try and optimise low sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) production. However, reduced output from Canada’s competitors Mexico and Venezuela is currently helping to mitigate this. Oil sands producers with refineries or upgraders are expected to benefit as the new standards will increase demand for refined low-sulphur fuels. For example, Husky Energy has expanded its Lloydminster Upgrader to produce an extra 4,000 bbl/d of diesel, and reconfigured its Lima refinery in Ohio to use more heavy oil.