Tag: Free Content
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Many EU Citizens Don’t Know Who Ursula von der Leyen Is
Many Europeans still struggle to identify Ursula von der Leyen, exposing Brussels’ persistent gap between institutional power and public recognition.
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EU Greenwashing Rules Collide With “Circular” Plastics
EU greenwashing rules collide with mass-balance accounting, raising questions over whether fossil-based plastics can legitimately be marketed as circular.
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Who Is Still Under Petrochemical Force Majeure?
Middle East disruptions triggered widespread petrochemical force majeure declarations, with several producers still facing unresolved supply constraints six months later.
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PFAS Lawsuit Targets 3M, DuPont and Chemical Giants
PFAS trouble is closing in on the chemical giants as firefighters drag 3M, DuPont and others into court over toxic “forever chemicals.”
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EU Now Depends on Nigerian Oil
Europe is increasingly turning to Nigeria’s Dangote refinery as Middle Eastern disruptions tighten fuel supplies and reshape traditional energy trade routes.
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China Revolutionises Oil Refining
Chinese researchers unveil membrane-based oil refining technology that could cut energy use, emissions and costs across fuels, chemicals and plastics.
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BASF Starts Breaking Itself Up
BASF prepares an Agricultural Solutions IPO as restructuring accelerates, potentially reshaping one of Europe’s biggest and most important chemical groups.
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ENI Faces Hundreds of Millions in Potential Biofuel Cartel Damages Claims
ENI faces potential compensation claims as litigation specialists prepare damages actions following Italy’s €936.7 million biofuel cartel decision involving six major fuel suppliers.
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Was There Insider Trading in the Oil Futures Market?
Suspicious oil trades before a major Trump announcement raised insider-trading concerns, prompting scrutiny of who knew what, and when.
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Saudi Pipeline Breakdown Puts Global Oil Supply at Risk
Saudi pipeline trouble threatens a key oil export route, raising fears of tighter global supply, higher prices and petrochemical disruption.
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EU’s Chemical Collapse Was Made in Brussels
Brussels piled regulation, energy costs and climate obligations onto chemicals, weakening competitiveness while cheaper foreign producers steadily captured Europe’s market share.
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SABIC Decides European Petrochemicals Aren’t Worth It Anymore
SABIC is selling its European petrochemicals business as weak demand, high costs and global competition pressure the region’s downstream industry.
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Europe Helped Destroy Eurasia’s Downstream
Europe helped isolate Russian refining. Now Ukrainian strikes are tightening diesel markets, exposing the strategic cost of dismantling Eurasian energy links.
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Bio-on: The Bioplastics Scandal That Still Raises Questions
Bio-on’s collapse still raises questions over auditors, financial oversight and the Italian government’s role in the company’s dramatic downfall.
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Oil Prices Triple Depending on Location
Oil prices are diverging sharply worldwide as shipping disruptions make geography increasingly important, creating huge premiums and discounts between crude grades.
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World Oil Demand Is Falling
IEA expects global oil demand to fall sharply in 2026 as high prices weaken consumption, especially across Asian petrochemical markets.
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Braskem’s Debt Crisis Deepens
Braskem’s debt restructuring depends on securing enough creditor support, leaving the Brazilian plastics giant facing renewed financial uncertainty.
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TotalEnergies Takes Full Control of Plastic-to-Oil Plant
TotalEnergies takes full control of Grandpuits plastic pyrolysis, converting difficult waste into synthetic oil for producing new plastics.
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Germany’s Leuna-Polyamid Shuts Nylon Production
Leuna-Polyamid will end nylon production in Germany after failing to find an investor, amid high costs and Chinese competition.
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Evonik Shuts Two German Chemical Plants
Evonik will close two German chemical sites, shifting production elsewhere as weak demand, Asian competition and margin pressure hit operations.
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Trump Wants More Oil Refineries
The White House is considering emergency powers to expand U.S. oil refining capacity as fuel prices rise and supply concerns grow.
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Leaked: Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union Speech
We obtained a copy of the leaked draft of Ursula von der Leyen’s upcoming State of the Union speech.
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Europe Wants Strategic Independence — But Can’t Finance It
Europe wants strategic independence, but foreign financing for critical industries exposes the growing gap between Brussels’ ambitions and economic reality.
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Brent Is European, But It Takes Orders From Washington
How Brent became American overnight — and what it says about Europe’s disappearing geopolitical influence.
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Trump vs China: The Oil Price War
Trump’s Iran strategy may squeeze China’s oil lifelines, boost American crude, and push Beijing into an even tighter energy alliance with Russia.
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EU Blames China for the Collapse of Its Chemical and Plastics Industry
Europe blames China for its industrial decline, but Brussels may need to confront how much of the damage is self-inflicted.
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21 Energy Companies Want to Explore for More Oil in Norway
Twenty-one energy companies have applied to explore for new oil and gas resources in Norway.
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Chemours, DuPont and Corteva Pay $455 Million Over PFAS Pollution
Chemical giants agree to pay $455 million to settle claims over PFAS pollution linked to contaminated water supplies in North Carolina.
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Bio-Based Plastics: Local Crops, Global Profits
Bio-based plastics promise local production and European value, but intensive agriculture, corporate concentration and struggling farmers expose serious environmental and economic contradictions.
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Canada Gets a New Oil Giant
Tamarack Valley and Headwater are merging in a C$10 billion deal, creating a major new Canadian crude oil producer.
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EU May Limit Cheap Chemical and Plastic Imports
EU countries are considering limits on cheap chemical and plastic imports to protect struggling European producers.
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Where Did the Ottoman Empire’s Oil Go?
European powers and later American oil companies competed for Ottoman petroleum. After the empire collapsed, its former oil territories became central to Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and global energy.
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Worst Politician of 2026
A savage verdict on political failure, establishment hypocrisy, abandoned victims and the widening gulf between European values and reality.
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Europe, Where Do Tetra Paks Actually Go?
Europe tells consumers exactly how to sort Tetra Paks. What happens after collection remains a much less transparent story.
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EU Lost Its Seat at the Oil Poker Table
Europe regulated itself out of the oil game, leaving others to control supply, prices and geopolitical leverage.
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Canada-US Trade War Reaches Plastics
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs now extend to selected U.S. plastic products, potentially reshaping sourcing, costs and cross-border supply chains.
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Oil Shock Sends Plastic Prices Higher
Oil’s surge toward $100 is lifting Chinese plastics and petrochemical prices, raising fears of higher costs across global supply chains.
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EU Plastics Sector Calls for Emergency Action
European plastics producers and recyclers urge Brussels to act as costs, weak demand and competition intensify.
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Goldman Sachs Warns of $120 Oil
Goldman Sachs warns intensifying Middle East shipping attacks could push oil prices toward $120 per barrel amid severe supply disruption risks.
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Is China Quietly Stabilising Global Oil Prices?
China’s weaker demand and large crude inventories are helping cushion global oil prices despite Middle East disruptions.
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Diesel, Not Crude, May Be the Real Energy Crisis
Diesel supplies could tighten this winter as refining disruptions, low inventories and geopolitical tensions intensify.
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The Greenest Shopping Bag? Perhaps It’s the One We Never Throw Away
Marco Astorri, founder and ex-CEO of Bio-on, argues that the greenest shopping bag may be the one we reuse, highlighting waste prevention and reserving PHA bioplastics for applications where single-use materials are genuinely necessary and environmentally justified.
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How Opium and Communism Westernized China
An opinion piece arguing that modern China progressively replaced much of traditional Chinese civilization by adopting Western political, industrial, technological and corporate models.
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EU Press Freedom: The Bullshit Edition
A Brussels blogger challenges the EU’s claims on press freedom while facing a lawsuit linked to criticism of the European Commission and its conduct.
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Italy’s Waste Scandal: Mafia, Business and Politics
Italy’s waste crisis exposed a toxic mix of mafia trafficking, failed politics, corporate contracts and poisoned land—leaving Campania to pay the price for decades.
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Italy Mandates Compostable Packaging Amid Conflict-of-Interest Concerns
Italy’s compostable-plastics policy raises conflict-of-interest concerns as state ownership and waste strategy increasingly overlap.
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EU Ends Plastic Waste Export Carousel
The EU will ban plastic waste exports to non-OECD countries from November 2026, tightening controls and pushing more recycling within Europe.
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Japan Moves on Mass-Balance Rules for Plastics
Japan launches task forces on plastic circularity, including mass-balance labelling, recycled plastics and bioplastics, to accelerate progress toward 2030 targets.
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Rising Microplastics in Soil Threaten UK Food Security
Rising microplastic contamination in UK farmland is raising concerns over soil health, crop productivity and food security, with sewage sludge identified as a major source.
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Recycled PET Is Not the Future. PHA Is
Marco Astorri argues recycled PET merely prolongs plastic pollution, while PHA offers a biodegradable alternative for applications prone to environmental leakage.
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Scientists Call for Mandatory UN Plastics Treaty Reporting
Scientists urge mandatory global plastics reporting under the UN treaty to track production, trade, recycling, chemicals, waste flows and progress.
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McDonald’s Faces Multimillion-Euro Fine Over Single-Use Plastic
McDonald’s faces potential multimillion-euro penalties in the Netherlands over continued use of single-use plastic cups.
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Chemical Recycling Crisis Deepens in Europe
Chemical recycling projects across Europe face closures, delays and investment pauses as weak economics and regulatory uncertainty challenge industry ambitions.
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PureCycle Delays Antwerp Chemical Recycling Plant to 2029
PureCycle postpones its Antwerp polypropylene recycling plant to 2029 despite €40 million in EU funding.
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UK’s Most Sustainable Plastic: Taxable Plastic
Britain’s plastic tax was meant to reduce waste. Now mass balance, rising rates and certification turn environmental policy into sophisticated fiscal accounting.
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ENI Expands Oil Production in Venezuela
ENI signs new agreements in Venezuela to expand oil projects and increase future production.
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Italy Considers New Tax on ENI and Energy Firms
Italy’s proposed windfall tax could reduce ENI’s profits and returns to shareholders.
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China Turns to Russian Oil as Middle East Supplies Tighten
China’s growing purchases of Russian oil could raise costs for smaller refiners and affect plastics production.
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Asian Plastics in Crisis
Asian plastics producers face mounting pressure as naphtha shortages, force majeure declarations and weak margins disrupt petrochemical production across region.
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Anellotech Goes Bankrupt: Another Advanced Recycling Dream Collapses
Anellotech is liquidating after nearly two decades developing technologies to convert biomass and plastic waste into petrochemical feedstocks. The US company had promoted its Plas-TCat process as a route to BTX aromatics, ethylene and propylene from mixed plastic waste. Its collapse raises fresh questions about the economics, scalability and commercial viability of advanced recycling technologies.…
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The Rhine Group: The People Who Broke Europe Are Here to Fix It
The Rhine Group: Making Europe Competitive Again, from Switzerland and the USA
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Latest Update on the UN Plastics Treaty
Latest developments on the UN Plastics Treaty ahead of crucial negotiations taking place in Bangkok soon.
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Europe Created Its Own Petrochemical Crisis
Europe’s shrinking petrochemical capacity leaves it increasingly exposed as geopolitical disruptions tighten global chemical supplies.
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South Korea Protects Its Petrochemical Industry
South Korea protects domestic naphtha supplies as global competition for petrochemical feedstocks intensifies amid disruptions.
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Petrochemical Winners of the Iran War
War-driven supply disruptions reshuffled petrochemical fortunes, boosting Western producers’ margins while Middle Eastern competitors struggled with production and logistics.
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War Hits Arab Petrochemical Giants
Middle Eastern petrochemical producers took a direct hit from the regional war. Saudi Arabia’s SABIC saw operating income fall 27%, while UAE-based Borouge reported a 27% decline in net profit and 18% lower sales volumes. Saudi Kayan and Sipchem also suffered from weaker volumes and higher costs, while Yansab bucked the trend, posting its strongest…
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Japan Resonac Dumps Petrochemicals on Shareholders
Resonac separates its petrochemicals operations, handing control of Crasus to shareholders as the Japanese group shifts towards higher-value businesses.
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Saudi Arabia Abandons Europe’s Chemical Recycling Ship
SABIC’s European exit and Plastic Energy’s collapse expose growing cracks in Europe’s chemical recycling ambitions as German investors take over.
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PetroChina Bets on Petrochemicals
PetroChina accelerates its petrochemical and advanced-materials expansion as declining transport-fuel demand reshapes China’s oil refining and chemicals industry.
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Trump Strikes World’s Biggest Oil Deal
A landmark US-Venezuela oil agreement gives American interests majority control over 65 billion barrels while promising investment and increased production.
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Refinery Attacks Cut Russian Gasoline Supply by 30%
Russia’s Fuel Crisis Adds Pressure to Fragile Global Market
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Global Supply Disruptions Rescue German Chemicals
German chemical producers see improving demand and sentiment, but weak capacity utilisation and global uncertainty continue to cloud the sector’s recovery.
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Plastic Giant Braskem Drowns in $11 Billion Debt
Mounting debt, cheaper imports and shrinking market share are pushing one of Latin America’s largest petrochemical producers into financial restructuring.
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15 Dead at SIBUR–Sinopec Gas Chemical Complex
A deadly fire at the massive SIBUR–Sinopec petrochemical complex highlights the human risks behind expanding global plastics production capacity.
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Sinopec Resets Strategy Amid Petrochemical Overcapacity
China’s Sinopec is reshaping its strategy as petrochemical overcapacity, weaker fuel demand and shrinking margins challenge the traditional refining and chemicals business.
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Indonesia Plans New Refinery and Petrochemical Complex
Indonesia is moving ahead with plans for a nearly $6 billion refinery and petrochemical complex in North Kalimantan.
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How Trump Keeps America the World’s Oil Master
Trump is turning America’s oil dominance into economic and geopolitical power, challenging Europe’s perception of him as an unpredictable leader.
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Taiwan Turns to America for Its Petrochemical Feedstocks
Taiwan turns to U.S. petrochemical feedstocks as Middle Eastern disruptions expose its dependence on Gulf supplies.
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Japan Changes Its Oil Strategy
Japan is reshaping its oil strategy, diversifying crude and naphtha supplies while protecting the domestic refining and petrochemical industries from future geopolitical disruptions.
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Braskem Makes Money but Can’t Pay the Bills
Braskem is making money again, but a massive $10.9 billion debt burden shows why profits alone cannot fix the petrochemical giant’s financial troubles.
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Shell to sell European Chemicals Business
Shell considers selling its European and US chemical assets as weak margins, high costs and declining competitiveness reshape the future of its global chemicals business.
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PPWR: The Recycling Fairy Tale Gets a Sequel
Forty years later, Brussels tries recycling again.
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Joe Biden Appointed EU Special Envoy for Oil and Gas
Joe Biden has been appointed EU Special Envoy for Oil and Gas
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Lukoil Romanian Refinery Enters Insolvency
Lukoil’s Petrotel refinery in Ploiești, Romania, is entering insolvency, as international sanctions continue to weigh on the Russian group’s European operations.
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Sinopec Looks Beyond the Gulf for Crude Oil
China’s Sinopec is moving to diversify its crude oil supplies as conflict in the Middle East exposes the risks of depending heavily on the region.
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How to Make the Chinese Great Again
This article offers a few practical and cultural observations on how Chinese companies and their people can operate more effectively in Europe, strengthen their image and build better relationships with European society.
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Is TotalEnergies Becoming Overexposed to Renewables?
TotalEnergies is increasingly exposed to renewable electricity, raising questions about whether the French energy major is allocating too much capital to a sector heavily shaped by European policy.
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Shell Sells European Renewables — and It Makes Perfect Sense
Shell has agreed to sell its European onshore renewables business to TotalEnergies as the British energy major continues to reshape its portfolio and concentrate capital on businesses offering stronger returns.
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Shell sells US chemical business
Shell is considering the sale of its US chemicals portfolio as part of a broader effort to reduce exposure to underperforming businesses and concentrate capital on higher-return activities such as oil, gas and trading.
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Norway Refuses to Run Its Energy Policy From the Berlaymont Cafeteria
Norway has delivered an inconvenient message to Brussels: it intends to keep looking for oil and gas in the Arctic, whether the European Union likes it or not. Norwegian Energy Minister Terje Aasland said Oslo would continue developing resources in the Barents Sea regardless of the EU’s position, arguing that Europe will continue needing secure…
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Philippines Cracks Down on 155 Companies Over Plastic EPR Compliance
The Philippines is stepping up enforcement of its plastic packaging rules, ordering 155 companies to explain their alleged failure to meet recycling and recovery obligations under the country’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation.
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Kazakhstan PP Exports to EU Surge 67% as EU Producers Struggle
Kazakhstan is strengthening its position in the European polypropylene market as domestic production rises and exports to the EU accelerate.
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China Joins the Great Recycled Plastic Treasure Hunt
After nearly nine years of keeping foreign plastic waste at arm’s length, China is reopening its borders to certain recycled plastic materials.
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South Korea Bets Big on Petrochemicals
While much of the global petrochemical industry is struggling with overcapacity and weak margins, South Korea is making a remarkably bold industrial bet.
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The Human Cost of the Bio-on Affair: A Personal Reflection
Looking back at the Bio-on affair today, there is one aspect of the story that deserves more attention: the human cost. After the report by Quintessential Capital Management, Bio-on’s collapse was extraordinarily rapid. The company, its technology and, above all, its chairman Marco Astorri became the subject of intense public scrutiny. What followed was not…
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Italy’s “Eco” Bags: Who Is Protecting Competition?
The €32 Million Question: Who Protects Competition in Italy’s Bioplastics Market?
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US Builds the Next Oil Route While Europe Destroys the Old One
Sometimes the difference between American and European strategic thinking can be summed up in a pipeline.
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How EU PPWR Bureaucracy Crushes Small Businesses
The EU’s Sustainable Trap: Treating Grandma’s Hobby Shop Like Amazon. Why the New PPWR is the Ultimate Death Blow for Micro-Businesse
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