US ethane cracker updates in petrochemical Q3 earnings calls
The first in a wave of US Gulf Coast ethane cracker projects is slated to start up in the first quarter of 2017 when Occidental Petroleum Corp. and MexiChem’s new joint-venture 550,000 mt/year project...
View ArticleTax reform is on the minds of US oil producers, refiners
The wave of fourth-quarter 2016 earnings calls is just getting started, but tax reform already seems to be the topic du jour for oil and gas companies. Analysts have been asking executives how they’re...
View ArticleMany US cracker projects moving along as expected, earnings calls show
Total aims to decide this year whether to move forward with a second steam cracker at its refining and petrochemical complex in Port Arthur, Texas, executives said last week. The French oil major...
View ArticleWhite House tries to join CERAWeek party
Shortly after ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Darren Woods took the stage at CERAWeek by IHS Markit in Houston, the White House sent out a statement congratulating Woods and his company on a $20 billion...
View ArticleCan electrification penetrate the heavy-duty vehicle sector?
“Daddy, when I grow up, should I become a petroleum engineer?” As noted frequently in Platts monthly newsletter Energy Economist, the decarbonization of transport seems for many limited to the light...
View ArticleBig Oil’s shale revival prompts industry doubts: Fuel for Thought
Oil and gas majors have brushed themselves off after the industrywide downturn and are back on their feet trying to mimic the success of smaller companies in US shale. But many doubters still question...
View ArticleInvestors in energy majors step up demands on climate action
Shareholder activism has a long history in commodities. In the early 17th century, Isaac Le Maire, grain trader and disgruntled former governor of the Dutch East India Company, attempted to break the...
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Oil majors wrestle with reserves as industry health measure
As oil majors and investors grapple with the upheaval of the energy transition, some traditional metrics for producers’ long-term growth potential are up for debate. Climate change, the renewable...
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Cross currents: Big oil and the energy transition
Well before the oil price rout caused by the coronavirus pandemic, commentators and shareholders were calling on Big Oil to make step-out energy transition acquisitions. Now, with economies in lockdown...
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Latin American crude exports to USGC see small gains amid coronavirus upheaval
Latin American countries, excluding Venezuela and Argentina, have slightly increased crude exports to the US Gulf Coast market in 2020 to date, despite fierce competition from Canadian and Middle East...
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