Posted on 01/08/2013 7:23:43 AM PST by thackney
"BP America has recruited an extraordinary group of 10 individuals for the company’s independent External Advisory Council. The Council will assist and advise BP America Chairman and President Bob Malone in reviewing the operations and business of BP in America."
The 10 members of the External Advisory Council are:
Tom Daschle Former U.S. Senator from South Dakota, Daschle served in the U.S. Senate for 26 years, including as Senate Majority Leader.
Mark Hamilton President of the University of Alaska and retired U.S. Army Major General.
Jamie Gorelick One of the longest-serving Deputy Attorneys General, Gorelick is a member of numerous boards, and lectures on corporate governance and business ethics.
Leon Panetta Former Chief of Staff to the U.S. President, 1994-1997, and former U.S. Representative from California.
Alden J. McDonald, Jr. President and CEO of Liberty Bank and Trust Company.
Alan Simpson Former U.S. Senator from Wyoming, Simpson has served on numerous government committees and civic boards.
Warren Rudman Former U.S. Senator from New Hampshire and recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal for Public Service.
Jim Hall An expert on crisis management, government relations and transportation safety and security, Hall has served government and private clients for over 35 years.
Admiral Frank L. “Skip” Bowman (ret.) Admiral Bowman is president and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute and is the former Chief of Naval Personnel and the former Director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion.
Christine Todd Whitman Former Governor of New Jersey and former Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Whitman is a member of many public boards.
The ethane is still processed and sent on. Progit margins just sink. The “stockpiling of excess” comes at the final proccessor. Most end-point-processors are flexible enough to redirect the ethane into other products like ethylene glycol (anti-freeze). It’s just that their clients get the advantage of lower prices.
Example: Dow Chem is a large manufacturer of anti-freeze (ethylene glycol) which is in high demand at this time of year by airlines and airports. They can shift the ethane to their glycol product and way from their polyethylene (plastics, Saran Wrap) production.
I think you have the wrong thread. This is not about BP.
Natural Gas Marketing: What is Ethane Rejection
http://www.solarc.com/blog/solarc/2010/12/natural-gas-marketing-ngl-marketing-what-is-ethane-rejection/
Summary – Ethane rejection is the term used by natural gas processors to describe selling ethane as a part of the residue gas stream rather than as a natural gas liquid (NGL). Residue gas or pipeline quality gas is used in electric generation stations, your stove top, or water heater. NGLs are used in petrochemicals to make plastics, among other things. Ethane rejection is an operational decision that affects professionals in both natural gas marketing and NGL marketing.
Background – Natural gas comes out of the ground as methane mixed with other “heavier” components: ethane, propane, butanes, and pentanes plus. What we call residue gas or pipeline quality gas is mostly methane. Each of the components have progressively higher molecular weights, which causes them to boil at progressively higher temperatures. Differences in boiling points are what makes gas processing and NGL fractionation work.
Imagine a bootlegger’s still with a fire at the bottom and cooling coils at the top. As you heat the alcohol and water, alcohol readily boils out of the top (with some water), and the water comes out of the bottom (with some alcohol). Now, imagine doing the same thing with methane and heaviers. In our still, the demethanizer, methane (with some ethane and heaviers) comes out the top, and ethane and heaviers (with some methane) comes out of the bottom.
In “Ethane Rejection,” the plant operator tweaks demethanizer temperatures to cause more ethane to boil out of the top with the methane gas stream, leaving less ethane in the bottom to sell as a liquid NGL. Ethane, because of its higher molecular weight, puts more burnable energy into the gas pipeline. Why would the operator want to do that?
Economics – Gas processors look at the market value of ethane burned as an MMBtu in the pipeline gas stream versus its value as a gallon of liquid. The plastics industry turns liquid ethane into ethylene, then polyethylene, and then into things like trash bags. So is ethane worth more burned in your stove top or lining your garbage can?
If ethane is worth more at a plant as a liquid (and ultimately lining your garbage can), the processor “recovers” ethane. If it’s worth more as a gas (ultimately burning on your stove top), he “rejects” ethane. This economic choice what we call a real option. The processor has the operational right but not the obligation to sell ethane as a gas, depending on what nets him the higher price at his gas processing plant. Of course, he can only reject as much ethane as permitted by the pipeline specs. We wouldn’t want your stove top to blow out…or blow up!
Does this explanation help? Let us know what you think.
Yes
It is more a economic decision about whether to sell ethane as a direct product, or just dump it into the rest of the “y” grade leftovers for next to nothing.
http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=3050079&contentId=3050155
On Feb. 5, Mr. Radley discussed the benefits of the deal with a lieutenant on the trading floor, Dennis Abbott, according to the complaint. "What we stand to gain, is not just we'd make money out of it, but we would know from thereafter that we can control the market at will," he said, according to phone recordings.
In a criminal plea filed by the Department of Justice, Mr. Abbott admitted to participating in the alleged market manipulation and is cooperating in the criminal probe. His attorney declined to comment in an email."
From a few years ago.
Thank you trying to turn a discussion of the NGL market and how it impacts manufacturing in the US into a BP bashing session.
They also sell donuts at their convenience stores. Maybe you can find a thread on donuts to carry this on as well.
b) Perhaps the ethane rejection is caused by continued BP market manipulations.
On January 27, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of all charges against Mark David Radley, James Warren Summers, Cody Dean Claborn, and Carrie Kienenberger, former employees of a subsidiary of BP America.
This is the result from a claim that of what happened in 2004.
You neglected to include that part:
http://www.justice.gov/criminal/vns/caseup/radleym.html
Now please, take your thread hijacking somewhere else.
Sorry, go back up thread and read what ethane rejection actually is.
No oil/gas company is manipulating the market to drive the price of their product as low as possible.
Thank you. That's the sort of context the poster should have included.
OK. What I was getting from the article was that it was undesireable to pipeline and that they were getting rid of it by some other means. Since "no flaring" is now the rule, I was wondering how.
I understand the (non-petroleum plant) chemical industry well, as I worked for just such a "diversified manufacturer" as you describe. And yes, there are a lot of places to put ethane to use once you get it into the plant(s).
Thank you for that informative explanation!
What is the price differential in making ethanol from corn vs ethane? Does it cost too much to get rid of the methanol/butanol fraction from ethane-generated ethanol?
Ethanol is not make from ethane.
To be clear, you can make ethanol from ethane, but it would cost more money than the ethanol is worth.
It is not part of our fuel ethanol supply chain.
The energy required to attach an -OH molecule to ethane is higher than deriving it from the gluco- chain found in cellulose.
It’s too expensive to convert C2H6 to C2OH.
Not to mention it won’t get any help from government subsidies and/or mandate either.
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