-Cheap natural gas and strong domestic demand for raw materials will drive U.S. chemical plant growth over the next several months, according to a new report from Standard & Poor’s Rating Services. Via FuelFix, the outlook for the U.S. chemical sector remains strong despite the fact that the oil price collapse has narrowed the competitive gap with foreign suppliers. Spending is up among American consumers, which has increased demand for materials used to make plastics, additives, coatings and other goods.
-Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee took federal pipeline regulators to task on Tuesday for delaying safety reforms passed four years ago. Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said some of the mandates would have made a difference in the recent oil spill in Santa Barbara County, Calif. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration proposed a rule requiring incident notification within one hour shortly after the spill.
-Booming crude production in the Rocky Mountain region has driven a steady increase in rail and pipeline oil shipments out of the area, according to the Energy Information Administration. The emergence of rail has also diversified the destination points for crude from the Rockies. Five years ago all crude shipped out of the region was transported to the Gulf Coast and the Midwest, but increased rail shipments have enabled the oil to reach markets all over the U.S.
-Kinder Morgan has agreed to buy Shell’s equity stake in the Elba Liquefaction Project at an existing LNG terminal near Savannah, Georgia. The deal will make Kinder Morgan the sole owner of the project and bring its total incremental investment in the Elba Island facilities to $2.1 billion. Kinder Morgan hopes to begin construction later this year, but the project is still in the permitting phase.
-Westlake Chemical said today Josef Ertl will retire as managing director of Vinnolit in October. Karl-Martin Schellerer, who has joined Westlake as vice president and general manager — Vinnolit, will succeed him. Schellerer served in numerous leadership roles at Vinnolit prior to a stint with Dr. Wieselhuber & Partner Consultants. Ertl, who has been with Vinnolit since 1998, led the company’s evolution into a global leader in specialty PVC and spearheaded Vinnolit’s recent sale to Westlake.
