San Antonio (Platts)--30Mar2009

North America can become the leader of the global petrochemical industry
again, as new supply of natural gas liquid feedstock will help growth of plant
capacities in the region, Nova Chemicals CEO Jeffrey Lipton said Sunday.
Lipton was speaking at the 13th Annual Petrochemical Heritage Award, in
conjunction with the 34th NPRA International Petrochemical Conference in San
Antonio, Texas. He said the Middle East will grapple to source recoverable
NGLs, in particular ethane, which was expected to be short in the coming
decades because of the lack of field developments in Saudi Arabia. As a
result, Middle East petrochemical producers would need to move to other
petrochemical feedstocks, like the traditional naphtha, prices of which are
not as competitive as that of NGLs.
For the whole story, please go to Platts Petrochemical Alert.