Ethane

Mexico’s petrochemicals sector has suffered from underinvestment and the prioritization of crude oil production by state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), according to a new issue brief published by Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.  These factors have led to a steady decrease over the last decade in Pemex’s production of ethane and ethane…

The terms of a new ethane supply agreement between Mexican national oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and petrochemical firm Braskem Idesa remain under discussion, despite indications from the government that a new agreement had been finalized, according to management of Braskem Idesa parent Braskem SA. The current 20-year, take-or-pay/supply-or-pay contract for Pemex to supply 66,000…

The first very large ethane carrier (VLEC) has been exported from Energy Transfer LP’s (ET) Nederland Terminal in East Texas loaded with more than 911,000 bbl of ethane destined for northeastern Jiangsu Province, China. Dallas-based ET said the VLEC was loaded by Orbit Gulf Coast NGL Exports LLC, its joint venture with Satellite Petrochemical USA…

Bakken Midstream Natural Gas LLC is considering developing a dual-fuel electric cooperative power plant in North Dakota that would primarily operate on ethane, with natural gas also in the fuel mix. Bakken Midstream is proposing to build the Williston Basin Energy Center for Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative near Williston, ND, in the heart of the Bakken…

Fitch Ratings has downgraded the debt of Mexico petrochemicals firm Braskem Idesa after state natural gas pipeline operator Cenagas cut off natural gas transport service to the firm’s Etileno XXI polyethylene complex in Veracruz state. With the transport service rescinded, Braskem Idesa was forced to shut down Etileno XXI, the largest petrochemicals operation in Latin…

Editor’s Note: NGI’s Mexico Gas Price Index, a leader tracking Mexico natural gas market reform, is offering the following column by Eduardo Prud’homme as part of a regular series on understanding this process. Prud’homme was central to the development of Cenagas, the nation’s natural gas pipeline operator, an entity formed in 2015 as part of…

After the recent flurry of mergers and acquisitions in the upstream space across North America, Phillips 66 thinks the midstream space is ripe for consolidation. The Houston-based management group discussed third quarter performance for the energy manufacturing and logistics firm during a conference call with analysts Friday. CFO Kevin Mitchell thinks the company could position…

Construction of Royal Dutch Shell plc’s multi-billion dollar ethane cracker in western Pennsylvania is about 70% complete, while the 98-mile pipeline system that would feed the facility is 95% complete, a company executive said Tuesday, noting that the Covid-19 pandemic has complicated the project. “All of the major equipment is up, all of the modules…

Mexico will need to build out infrastructure to import ethane in order to keep its petrochemicals industry afloat amid insufficient domestic natural gas production, according to local experts. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s recent call to renegotiate or even cancel an ethane supply agreement between state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and the Etileno XXI…