Petrochemicals Markets, Costs & Profitability  

OBJECTIVES

At the conclusion of this course, you should be able to:

• Industry structure and feedstock linkages, key relationships and global structure and industry change
• Petrochemical economics, commercial aspects and cost structure of the main product families – profitability and pricing of petrochemicals
• Polymers – trends in production and markets, polymer usage, inter-polymer competition
• Gas based chemicals – cost and price competitiveness ammonia, methanol, natural gas pricing issues and chlorine and caustic business
• How to make and apply projections of profitability and demand

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Delegates encouraged to attend include managers, planners and commercial marketing/supply personnel from both established petrochemical producers and new entrants. In addition, trading and marketing staff dealing in petrochemicals or feedstocks and people who interface with petrochemicals from related sectors such as refining and user industries are urged to attend. Also, individuals from outside agencies such as the media, banks, accounting firms or engineering companies will find the course of value.

COURSE OUTLINE

Industry Structure and Feedstock Linkages

• Petrochemicals related to refining, gasoline and fuels
• Upstream and downstream feedstock linkages

Petrochemical Economics

• Costing: cash and full costs, variable and marginal costs, cost curves and competitor cost structure
• Pricing, price setting mechanisms, price monitoring

Feedstocks – An Analysis

• Petrochemical feedstocks for cracking, reforming and intermediates production
• The oil refinery and refining/petrochemicals interface
• Commercial Development of the International Base Chemicals Business
• Trends in price leadership for world markets
• Recent history of supply/demand trends
• Regional supply/demand positions and balances

Technology and Economics of Olefins

• Process descriptions and flow descriptions
• Methodology of cost of production analyses and sensitivities
• Steam cracker economics
• Effect of different feedstocks on C2, C3 and C4 yields
• Project planning and finance

Gas-based Chemicals – The Worry of Price Competitiveness

• Ammonia: profits and cyclability
• Methanol: MTBE; the gasoline situation
• International trade and market trends
• Natural gas pricing issues

The Chlorine/Caustic Business

• The business problems of different demand patterns
• Production/process trends, market trends

Commodity Polymer Trends

• Trends in production and markets
• Polymer usage, LDPE, LLDPE, HDPE, PP, PS, PVC
• Interpolymer competition and price equilibrium
• Motivation for polymer trade and impact on established producing areas

Developments in International Trade in Base Chemicals

• Current international trade patterns
• Problems facing new producers, impact on Europe
• Petrochemical tariff trends
• Expected inter-regional trade trends