Last month I suggested that we should stay alert for ‘Black Swan’ events. On the geo-political level we have seen extraordinary changes taking place in Tunisia. With the contagion overflowing into Egypt, we may see a series of new regimes in hitherto stable Arab countries. What chance that the effect will reach the key oil producing states? You can imagine that several corporations and countries are reviewing their contingency plans. The oil price has already reached $100 a barrel.
In the World of the majors, BP has put 2010 behind it and re-structured its business with a ground-breaking share-exchange deal with Rosneft that has in turn upset both the BP-TNK partners and some US Congressmen! It also plans to sell some of its US refineries. What a start to 2011.
Meanwhile Shell has announced a near doubling of its annual profits at $18.6bn for 2010, with the promised of significant investment in 2011. ExxonMobil has also seen an earnings boost - up 57% on the back of higher oil price - and continued to increase investment spending by 19% to $32bn last year; rather more than the $24bn that the Chinese oil companies spent on overseas developments.
The world’s economy is sending out variable signals again. UK GDP fell in Q4 2010 prompting double-dip concerns which are mitigated by recent reports of the strongest Purchasing Managers index rising from 57 to 62, the highest level since its inception in 1992. Seemingly Germany, the key market in Europe is continuing to grow well.
In the lubricants business, REACh’s implementation is finally upon us as the 30th November deadline has passed. For Lubricants marketers selling in the EU this has had, and will continue to have, a widespread impact.
Just as the larger companies are trimming ranges to reduce marketing and variety costs of production, the smaller companies are rationalising their product ranges to avoid compliance costs.
When combined with the product range changes brought about by ACEA 2008, the pressure on oil companies’ systems for documentation have rarely been heavier. Changes to Technical Data Sheets as well as MSDS, with fewer technical staff and higher compliance risks for senior management, makes having the right systems ever more important; hence the need for new OATS TEMDOX. If you want to know more about this new publishing solution to the emerging EHS issues, or to offer comment or contributions to the OATS Bulletin, please contact us at bulletin@oats.co.uk.
Sebastian Crawshaw, Chairman OATS