The Future of the Petrochemicals Industry and Sino-Saudi Cooperation

The Covid-19 pandemic and the responses to it have had a pronounced impact on the global economy. Major consuming sectors for petrochemicals, including cars and appliances, construction and textiles, have suffered a slump in demand. The production outputs of petrochemicals also vary across regions and countries, with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and China the least affected. Slowed economic growth, increased price volatility of feedstocks, intensified geopolitics and trade barriers, growing concern over health, safety and environment (HSE) standards, among other disrupters, are driving changes in the petrochemical industry.

Rheological and tribological approaches as a tool for the development of sustainable lubricating greases based on nano-montmorillonite and castor oil

This study investigates the development of novel montmorillonite/castor oil blends to formulate sustainable lubricating greases to promote the replacement of petrochemicals industry-derived materials by substances obtained from renewable sources. Specifically, the effect of the thickener concentration on the rheological, chemical, thermal, tribological properties, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) microstructure of these systems were studied. The results showed that the C20A nanoclay content could be used to modulate the viscosity values, the linear viscoelastic functions, and tribological properties of these montmorillonite dispersions. In general, these gel-like dispersions exhibited remarkable lubricant properties; the samples showed values of the friction coefficient and wear scars similar or lower than those obtained with model bentonite grease.

New Saudi and Emirati gas finds boost export hopes

Significance Further exploration and appraisal work will be needed to gauge how much gas can be recovered from the new discoveries and at what cost. The global demand slump following COVID-19 lockdowns is raising cost-effectiveness questions over the multiplicity of new global LNG projects, not least in neighbouring Qatar. Nevertheless, Middle East producers are well positioned to challenge US and Russian LNG in Asian and European markets. Impacts Middle Eastern LNG imports will decline further, and plans for new regasification capacity are likely to be shelved. Dubai’s reduced dependence on the Dolphin gas import pipeline could affect relations with Qatar and fellow-customer Muscat. Riyadh’s development of the Jafurah gas and condensate field will provide feedstock for its growing petrochemicals industry.

Single-atom catalysis: a new field that learns from tradition

Much of industrial chemical processing (in the petrochemicals industry, for example), and a great deal of laboratory chemical synthesis, involves catalysts that both lower the energy barrier to reaction and may help steer a reaction along a particular path. Traditionally, catalysts have come in two classes: heterogeneous, typically meaning that the catalyst is an extended solid; and homogeneous, where the catalyst is a small molecule that shares a solvent with the reactants. In heterogeneous catalysis, the reaction generally takes place on a surface, involving molecules attached there by covalent bonds. Homogeneous catalysts are often organometallic compounds, in which a metal atom or small cluster of atoms supplies the active site for reaction. In recent years, these distinctions have become somewhat blurred thanks to the advent of single-atom catalysis, where the catalytic site consists of a single atom (as in many homogeneous catalysts) attached to or embedded in a surface. The emergence of this field might be regarded as the logical conclusion of the use of ‘supported metal clusters’—small metal particles of nanometer scale and below, containing perhaps hundreds, tens or just a few atoms. It has became clear that such clusters can sometimes provide greater product selectivity and activity than macro-sized particles or powders of the same metal, partly because the active sites might be atoms at particular locations (such as edges and corners) in the nanoscale particles. By reducing their scale down to the level of single atoms, one can optimize these properties. At the same time, the potential uniformity of the atoms’ environments makes such catalysts more amenable to rational design and modeling to understand mechanism. This field represents an appealing blend of fundamental chemistry and physics—from the quantum-mechanical level upwards—and applied research aimed at producing many of the products vital to society, such as fuels and materials. Researchers in China have been strongly active in this field in recent years (see, for example, refs [1–5]). Jean Marie Basset of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, is one of the leading practitioners in the area, and National Science Review spoke to him about the development and prospects of the field.

Managing engineering contractors in the UK petrochemicals industry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate, at the industry level, the modes of governance used by multinational companies in the UK petrochemical industry to outsource maintenance activities to engineering contractors. The study focusses on a form of novel governance structure called an Employer Panel (EP). Design/methodology/approach The study applies an inductive case study method to investigate the contractor governance mechanisms in 19 out of the 20 major petrochemical instillations located in the UK. Data included interviews, documentary and secondary evidence gathered from the cases and also industry bodies. Findings The study uncovered three distinct types of governance mode: market, managing contractor, and EP of contractors. The latter relies on the governance process of “mandated collaboration” to coordinate. Research limitations/implications The main limitation is the focus on a particular industry, albeit an important one. The research implications include extending the empirical research into other sectors which use on-site contracted maintenance such as ship and aircraft manufacturing. Practical implications The EP structure with its mandated collaboration process is of value to managers of contractual relationships as it gives insights into coordinative process and it may provide an alternative model for managing outsourcing relationships. Social implications The mandated collaborative process requires clients to engage its contractors in longer term relationships, thus increasing corporate social responsibility and providing wider job security for contractor employees. Originality/value The EP mode, as far as can be ascertained, has not been addressed in the literature before.