Petrochemicals

Petrochemical Trading

Petrochemical trading is recovering following a slide in production and demand requirements in 2020 throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.  Despite the rocky markets, petchems remain a mainstay in the commodity trading arena and are critical in many day to day applications.  Imperium Commodity Search manage relationships across the supply chain of petchems, primarily with trading houses and sales side firms.

What are Petrochemicals?

Petrochemicals refer to chemical products produced from the refining process of petroleum and broadly broken down into olefins and aromatics:

Olefins are produced through the cracking of NGLs like ethane and propane.  The most common olefins include ethene, propene and butenes; used in the production of materials including plastics, fibres and resins, particularly polymers.  

Aromatics are made from the catalytic reforming of Naphtha, a light end distillate from crude refining.  Benzene, Toluene and Xylene, referred to as BTX, are the key products produced form the aromatic reforming process.   

What are Petrochemicals used for?

Petrochemicals have an incredibly broad range of uses, from fibres in clothing to fertilizer through to rocket fuel.  Whilst plastics are likely the most common household item made using petrochemicals, lots of other every day items rely on the petchem industry including crayons, food packaging, carpet fibres and even shampoos and hair dyes.  

Unlike other oil products, petrochemicals can be broken down into a huge number of different chemicals which all have very specific properties for different applications.

How and where are petrochemicals traded? 

To view our current petrochemical, oil or petroleum trading, operations and support vacancies click here or contact one of our consultants to discuss current careers / jobs in energy trading to discuss your needs in more detail. 

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