Upstream producers are feeling the pain from this year's plunging oil prices, and uneasiness is trickling into parts of the downstream as well. After all, many of the new North American petrochemical projects were developed under the logic of shale-gas-derived ethane feedstocks being economically superior to facilities elsewhere in the world using expensive oil feedstocks. But follow the chain a bit further, and there's a potential winner to be found. With lower energy costs boosting discretionary income, those petrochemical producers focusing on plastics such as polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) could soon find a holiday bonus in the form of increased demand for their products.
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