By John Richardson MOST OF the time historical events move at a snail’s pace. The metaphorical tectonic plates are still moving but they are invisible to most of us. Stress then suddenly overcomes friction, as with earthquakes, and events gallop ahead. Take the Cold War as an example where both sides were locked […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Collapsing battery costs point to ever-declining forecasts for oil demand
By John Richardson THE END of the oil age is arriving. Sooner than many people think, demand for oil in transportation will collapse. And as the environmental benefits of switching to electric vehicles become more and more apparent, we will look back and wonder “Why on earth did we use oil?”, just as we already […]
Plastic waste crisis threatens 575m tonnes of global non-recycled PE demand
By John Richardson THE DEMAND growth for oil and other liquid fuels could be more than 50% lower up until 2040 under one scenario presented by BP in its latest Energy Review. This outcome would be the result of substantial growth in polymers recycling over the next 20 years. Oil majors are spending billions of […]
Electric Vehicles And The Collapse In Oil, Polymers Demand
By John Richardson IN THE mid-1980s, AT&T hired a consultant to estimate the level of US mobile phone ownership by 2000. They estimated 900,000. The actual number was 109 million. The petrochemicals and polymers industry is at risk of making a mistake of the same magnitude by underestimating the growth of electric autonomous-driven vehicles. […]
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