Thomko Petro Chemical Blog

Companies that use the testing process is only growing, and it includes much more than the petro-chemical industry.

Although there is growth all over the Golden Triangle with the expansion of refineries like Motiva and Total, there's a slight bump in the road.

The Industrial Alliance says more and more potential employees are failing drug tests and can't work for the expansion projects.

Some drug screening agencies say companies are calling daily, wanting to have their employees screened.

Rob Bittle is the owner of Advantage Drug Testing in Beaumont. He says his business is booming since the announcement of several refinery expansions in South County. In fact, he says his company has grown more than 300 percent.

But with that growth, comes a problem with finding enough employees to pass the tests. Out of every fifty, eight people will fail. "We do see them and see people denied access and unfortunately they lose their jobs.

This doesn't allow us the number of people we need to build and maintain facilities, according to Mark Viator, a facilitator with the Industrial Alliance.

The Southeast Texas economy at a deficit. "With a current workforce of about 13 to 14 thousand  another 14 thousand. needed. Every employee that walks through the gates must take a drug screening.

"Delivery people, supply people, supply houses, sub contractors, special skills and services, engineers are all required to be drug screened," says Bittle. "They have a responsibility to the community, environment, their employees, their equipment, to make sure people are fit for duty. Not taking drugs. A responsibility and trust the industry is not willing to break."

Drug screening agencies say the number of companies that use the testing process is only growing, and it includes much more than the petro-chemical industry.
 
http://www.kfdm.com/news/says_25751___article.html/drug_people.html

You might lose some sleep when you find out what's really inside your mattress-memory foam or not.

The place where you spend one-third of your life is chock-full of synthetic materials, some potentially toxic.

Since the mid- to late '60s, most mattresses have been made of polyurethane foam, a petroleum-based material that emits volatile organic compounds that can cause respiratory problems and skin irritation.

Formaldehyde, which is used to make one of the adhesives that hold mattresses together, has been linked to asthma, allergies, and lung, nose, and throat cancers. And then there are cotton pesticides and flame-retardant chemicals, which can cause cancer and nervous-system disorders.

In 2005, Walter Bader, owner of the "green mattress" company Lifekind and author of the book Toxic Bedrooms, sent several mattresses to an Atlanta-based lab. A memory-foam model was found to emit 61 chemicals, including the carcinogens benzene and naphthalene.

There is no proven health risk from the substances in mattresses, however, mostly because tracking their long-term effects is virtually impossible.

Heather Stapleton, an environmental chemist at Duke University, says there's simply not enough data to determine whether low levels of these chemicals will eventually make people sick. "It's the dose that makes the poison," she says. "If they're not getting out, maybe it's not a problem-but we don't know. There are plenty of lab studies that show that these compounds are harmful. It's just a question of what levels people are exposed to."

Still, more and more consumers are seeking out mattresses made of natural latex, organic cotton batting, and organic wool. Sales of California-based Vivètique's latex mattresses have increased by 40% annually for the past five years-they now comprise 45% of the company's total sales. And they are even sold by discounter 1-800-Mattress.

Read more at ENN - Should You Ditch Your Chemical Mattress?

Iran Opens Oil Bourse to Sidestep U.S. Sanctions

I previously posted about the opening of Iran's kish island bourse, and awhile ago did a posting on Iran backing off the U.S. dollar reserve in favor of other currencies - particularly the euro - CT  

Iran opened an exchange for crude and petrochemicals Sunday, an effort that encourages private investment in the nation’s prominent energy sector.

The primary trade currency used by the bourse will be the euro, thereby establishing a euro-based oil marker if successful. Iran first floated the idea of trading oil in several years ago, but a weak dollar has breathed new life into the concept.

http://www.moneymorning.com/2008/02/19/iran-opens-oil-bourse-to-sidestep-us-sanctions/

As well are all aware, billions of plastic bags are choking our planet, littering the landscape, and put toxic chemicals in our rivers, lakes, beaches and the ocean.

The plastic bags we use, and throw away every day do not biodegrade, they photodegrade, which simply means the plastic breaks down into small toxic bits which contaminate the ground and waterways.

These toxic plastic bits also enter the food chain when animals ingest these particles.

Sea turtles, whales and other marine life die from ingesting plastic bags and debris mistaken for food.

While these bags are assumed to be "free", these plastics bags have, and will continue to bring an untold cost to our global environment.   

Plastic bags are a by product of the oil industry, and it takes vast amounts of oil to produce the billions of bags that are used by consumers every day. So it's easy to understand that the cost of oil is also driven by our constant use of plastic bags and products.

Visit this great site for more info, and how you, and all of us can get more involved -
Eco-friendly reusable bags, plus facts & news on plastic bag issue
http://www.reusablebags.com/

Researchers are exploring whether exposure to common chemicals during early development could set us up for a lifetime battle with the bulge.

Being fat has long been seen as a personal problem, fixed only by struggling against the proliferation of fast food restaurants, unlucky genes, and a sedentary life. But could something in the environment also be making Americans fat in epidemic numbers?

Animal studies in recent years raise the possibility that prenatal exposure to minuscule amounts of common chemicals - found in everything from baby bottles to toys - could predispose a body to a life of weight gain.

These chemicals, known as endocrine disrupters, mimic natural hormones that help regulate, for example, how many fat cells a body makes and how much fat to store in them.

Finish reading article at Boston.com

Chemical plants in Houston already produce many of the raw plastics used to make auto components.

The new fuel laws will drive even more business to Houston. This senario comes about because to meet the new fuel standards, the weight of new vehicles must be reduced, in addition to building more efficient engines.

Houston produces a large percentage of the U.S. plastic resin production such as:

37% of Polyethylene - Polyethylene is the most popular plastic in the world and used for grocery bags, shampoo bottles, children's toys, and many more popular products.

53% of Polypropylene - Polypropylene is used for food packaging, ropes, textiles, stationery, plastic parts, reusable containers, lab equipment, loudspeakers, and automotive components.

37% of Polyvinyl chloride - This petrochemical products is used as a cheap, durable, easy to assemble building material replacing more traditional building materials such as wood, concrete and clay.

While on one hand this is an obvious boom for the petrochemical industry in Texas, there are limits to plastic and lightweight materials in conjunction with health and safety issues, as well as increased cost due to the rising cost of oil. 

Brazil and Venezuela's state-owned petrochemical companies are joining forces to build a $3.52 billion petrochemical complex in Venezuela.

The complex is anticipated to be the most modern and competitive integrated petrochemical project in the region. Investments of $900 million is needed to have the facility up and running by 2010.

Two separate companies will be created to push the joint venture. One facility will be a polypropylene facility that will produce 450,000 tons per year. Polypropylene is used for food packaging, ropes, textiles, stationery, plastic parts and reusable containers of various types, laboratory equipment, loudspeakers, and automotive components.

An additional facility will build an ethane plant using natural gas as feedstock. The $2.6 billion facility will be capable of producing 1.3 million tons of ethylene and 1.1 million tons of polyethylene annually. It expects to be operational by mid 2012. Ethylene is the most produced organic compound in the world.

The petrochemical products will be marketed to Venezuela, South American nations, the U.S. and Europe.

DuPont™ Tychem® F, a chemical barrier garment, is protecting workers at a leading petrochemical company in Russia.

To protect employees and meet recently renewed safety standards, the Russian petrochemical company uses Tychem® F to protect its employees when they come in direct contact with oil and petroleum derivatives during reservoir cleaning and maintenance.

“Our extensive knowledge and rich experience have enabled us to provide reliable and effective solutions. As a result, Tychem® F coveralls have successfully passed wear trials at Tomskneftekhim and now are in common use,” said Ivan Sedykh, manager, DuPont Personal Protection, Western Siberia and the Far East.

Source: AZOM

On Tuesday, ExxonMobil began building the world's largest petrochemical complex in Singapore, which is expected to be ready by 2011.

The petrochemical complex, which will be ExxonMobil's second plant in the city-state, would be capable of producing one million tons of ethylene and 1.3 million tons of polyethylene annually.

It is also capable of producing 450,000 tons of polypropylene and 300,000 tons of specialty elastomers, the company said.

ExxonMobil executives declined to say how much was invested in the petrochemical plant, but industry experts estimate that a project of such size could require investments of 2.0 billion US dollars.

Source: AFP

The quiet village of Tallevast in Florida's Manatee County traces its roots back to the 1890s, when a community of shacks was built there for African-American labourers who worked tapping sap from the local pine forests to make turpentine and grew sugarcane, celery and strawberries in the fields.

Today, Tallevast is home to about 250 people, many of them descendants of the former slaves who founded the town. But those families now face a bitter choice.

For 25 years, from 1961 to 1996, the American Beryllium Company ran a plant in Tallevast that made parts for nuclear reactors and weapons.

Because beryllium has a low density and is stronger than steel, the metallic chemical compound is often used by aerospace industry companies. With the end of the Cold War, the need to produce such materials subsided and the plant was closed in 1996.

Unbeknownst to residents, an underground leak had released beryllium into water wells in the village. And when the defence company Lockheed Martin Corp. bought the plant and discovered the problem in 2000, it failed to inform the people of Tallevast for another three years.

This past summer, a state agency reported that people who had drunk water from Tallevast's contaminated wells have an elevated risk of developing kidney cancer, leukemia, liver cancer or lymphoma. The contaminated wells have been capped and many of the villagers now use municipal water.

Read the full story

Cuba and Venezuela have signed an agreement for nickel and oil development, along with a billion-dollar petrochemical complex to be built on the island of Cuba.

Chavez also has plans to build an underwater fiber optics cable between the two countries. The joint venture involving nickel is to mine the metal, and then turn it into ferro-nickel.

Cuba's oil is of a low quality crude, however Chavez has plans to upgrade the oil quality, along with exploring offshore blocks in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, and oil exploration off the western coast of Cuba.

The agreement signed today by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and acting Cuban President Raul Castro, was actually brought about when Fidel Castro and Chavez founded the Bolivian Alternative for the Americas back in 2004. The 2004 pack has two other countries, Bolivia and Nicaragua, and is an alternative to U.S. free trade initiatives in the region.

Cuba and Venezuela have 19 other joint ventures on the board in several different sectors - especially energy. A Cuban super tanker port is on the drawing board, along with dormant oil refineries that were abandoned when the Soviet Union collapsed.

The new agreement calls for the building of a plant to turn liquefied natural gas back into gas, a fertilizer plant, and the construction of other petrochemical plants around the refinery.

Qatar is planning its first petrochemical complex which will produce over 1.7m tons per year of several petrochemical products. The project was developed by Qatar Petroleum, and is scheduled to begin in 2011. 

Qatar Holding has selected a South Korean company, Honam Petrochemical as its joint partner (30%), as part of the plan to expand the country's base of intermediate petrochemical products.

Several internationally known companies will assist in the project - Foster Wheeler - UK, Lummus - USA, and Basel - Italy.

The cost of this multinational project has not been released. The multi billion dollars mega-venture will produce annually 180,000 tonnes of propylene, 700,000 of polypropylene, 380,000 tons of styrene, 220,000 tons of polystyrene and over 250,000 tons of aromatics. 

ExxonMobil Chemical Company, a petrochemical company, and part of ExxonMobil announced it has created a new speciality compounds and composites business.

The chemical company will focus on the development, production and marketing of engineered polyolefin compounds for automotive applications. The products range from soft and flexible compounds to reinforced composites, using ExxonMobil's polypropylene, polyethylene, and elastomer base polymers which can be produced globally. 

As I stated in a recent post, most of OPEC member's investments are going into petrochemicals and downstream refineries - not increased oil production.

The IEA (International Energy Agency) has called for OPEC to pump more crude in order to drive down the price of gasoline, however OPEC says it has NO plans to do so.

Read the words of the Saudi oil executive, Sadad Al-Husseini - "There has been a paradigm shift in the energy world whereby oil producers are no longer inclined to rapidly exhaust their resource for the sake of accelerating the misuse of a precious and finite commodity."

Also Matthew Simmons put it best in his book "Twilight in the Desert", "Too many people are looking at OPEC through the rear view mirror. There's a resolve in their eyes never to go back to the days of cheap oil."

The "paradigm shift" is these oil producing countries finally realize they are in control of about 75 - 80% of the world's oil supply. In the past these countries simply sold their oil, and pumped more when needed, and lived with the highs and lows according to demand.

Petrochemicals is the name of the game in the Middle East. Countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran will need more of their own oil to fuel their petrochemical projects and products. We will buy some of those petrochemical products too, and of course some oil - so it's a win-win for them.  

Every time OPEC stops meeting our demands, Americans find themselves complaining about the high cost of gasoline - it's a tired old story. We cannot continue to do the same things and expect different results - plain and simple. The majority of Americans need to come together in our own "paradigm shift" and be willing to make some hard decisions and sacrifices for the future of this country.

Americans need to vote! As citizens we should become more savvy in how we elect our leaders. How many people actually look up the voting records of their politicians? They could not do what they do if we held their feet to the fire.

No more excuses, bookmark this site, pass it on to others, and visit it often and find out exactly what the people who are supposed to be serving you are doing. http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm

We should also stop complaining about the media. If we change and start acting like this is our country, then the media will have no choice but follow our lead. 

What we need is creativity, innovation and to become more proactive instead of reactive. We need to start making things again in America, so average Americans can have good jobs to feed their families, and export can be part of our vocabulary instead of importing.

And sometimes we just need to copy what other countries are doing successfully around the globe.

For instance - Sweden, Brazil and Iceland plan to be "oil free" by 2020. What's America's date?
http://thomko.squarespace.com/journal/2006/2/20/sweden-declares-freedom-from-oil.html

And Sweden is turning alcohol into biogas - We've got plenty of Alcohol
http://thomko.squarespace.com/journal/2007/7/11/sweden-turns-alcohol-into-biogas.html

Europe Leads US in Biofuel Production - That was back in 2005
http://thomko.squarespace.com/journal/2005/8/21/europe-leads-us-in-biofuel-production.html

Australia Making Clean Energy from Beer - We have plenty of beer 
http://thomko.squarespace.com/journal/2007/5/3/clean-energy-from-beer.html

A US company is taking plastics recycling to another level – turning them back into the oil they were made from, and gas.

All that is needed, claims Global Resource Corporation (GRC), is a finely tuned microwave and – hey presto! – a mix of materials that were made from oil can be reduced back to oil and combustible gas (and a few leftovers).

Key to GRC’s process is a machine that uses 1200 different frequencies within the microwave range, which act on specific hydrocarbon materials.

As the material is zapped at the appropriate wavelength, part of the hydrocarbons that make up the plastic and rubber in the material are broken down into diesel oil and combustible gas.

Read more about this

The heat is on in the chemical industry as competitors struggle for control of industrial assets in this multi-billion dollar market.

The soaring cost of petrochemical feedstocks (byproducts of oil and natural gas), has put a tight squeeze on the margins of petrochemical companies in Europe and America.

However, the same does not apply to the Middle East. These countries have access to raw materials (mainly oil), which is of little cost to them. So the Middle Eastern countries profits are soaring at the same time U.S. and European profits are dropping. It's all about oil!

Currently bids are being offered for Huntsman, the largest privately owned chemical company in the U.S.  and this will mean an end of the Hunstman family control.

Who will get the bid? Not sure, but it will make news when it happens . . . CT

Tight European Polypropylene Supply Impacts U.S. Supply and Prices

Polypropylene is a petrochemical product that is used in food packaging such as reusable containers, ropes, textiles,  laboratory equipment, loudspeakers, automotive components, and polymer banknotes.
 
Several force majeures declared at crackers in Europe last week causing U.S. polypropylene inventories to be lower, and the strong euro versus the U.S. dollar has caused an increase in price. Demand for the product has also escalated in Brazil, India, Turkey and Israel.    

A force majeure is defined as an event caused by circumstances beyond the control of the facility, contractors, or any entity controlled by the affected facility that prevents the owner or operator from complying with the regulatory requirement to conduct performance tests within the specified time frame. Examples of such events are acts of nature, acts of war or terrorism, or equipment failure or safety hazard beyond the control of the affected facility.

Source: Platts