Argus Petrochemical Markets

Eng. Ihab Yahia Ahmed has more than 17 years’ experience in the petrochemicals markets and industry. He began his career as a process engineer in SIDPEC’s PE plant for 5 years. He was nominated to join SIDPEC’s marketing team in 2005 where he gained a process technologies background supported in studying the petrochemicals industry downstream markets and its dynamics. He was then seconded to ETHYDCO in order to establish its petrochemicals downstream products marketing strategy. He is now back at SIDPEC as Marketing Research Department Head in order to participate in new projects and initiate tactics that work on increasing local and international customers’ loyalty through exploiting the internal and external supply chain communications and dealing with direct and indirect value chain members, while implementing the best output in improving SIDPEC’s marketing mix and downstream projects. His skills have qualified him to mentor new employee training and deal with multicultural business activities. He has also been invited to speak at many global petrochemicals and plastics events across the globe. Read less

Genoveva Climent has worked extensively at the port of Tarragona and has in-depth knowledge of the logistics, port community and customs management. She joined the commercial department in 2012 as head of unit business manager and was appointed commercial director in 2015. She is focusing on diversifying traffic flows and the development of an intermodal rail terminal at Tarragona and on the dry port infrastructure in Madrid. She also assumed the General Manager functions at ChemMed Tarragona (the biggest petrochemical cluster in south of Europe). Genoveva studied law at graduate level before completing a Masters in international business at Pompeu Fabra University, a post-graduate in maritime operations and a Masters in port management and intermodal transport at Valenciaport Fondation & Pontificia de Comillas University. Read less

Will Collins is the Editor of the Argus Freight report, based in London. He joined Argus in 2011 in the sales team, and moved into the shipping sector in early 2020 after a long stint in sales and editorial roles in Argus’ petrochemicals business. Will's role encompasses all of the areas that are covered in Argus Freight, including dirty and clean tankers and dry bulk shipping. Read less

As Scientific Director at Arkema, Jean-Luc Dubois is responsible for corporate research and development into catalysis, processes, renewables and recycling. He supervises long-term projects and builds relationships with academic partners and companies. A graduate of the Hautes Etudes Industrielles, Jean-Luc went on to obtain a PhD from the French Institute of Petroleum for his work on catalysts. He took a postdoctoral role at the National Chemical Laboratory for Industry in Tsukuba, Japan, and then a research and development position at refining company Elf Antar France, which was absorbed by Total. He transferred to Elf Antar France’s chemicals division, Elf Atochem, in 1997. Jean-Luc chairs the executive board of the EU’s MMAtwo project on PMMA recycling, and participates in the EU’s Multicycle, PolynSpire and Resyntex polymer recycling projects. He is the author of more than 100 publications and 150 patent applications. Read less

Josep has over 15 years’ experience with chemical and logistics companies, focused on import-export, sales, business development and key account management. Among his clients are the big global chemical companies and oil majors. Since 2014, he has led various process management and software development projects. Josep is also in charge of Vopak Terquimsa’s marketing and communication and has a bachelor's degree in marketing and in international commerce. Read less

Mathew George is Head of Petrochemical Exports at Indian Oil Corporation in Mumbai. An Indian Oil veteran of 30 years, he is a mechanical engineer from the University of Kerala and has an MBA in finance from XLRI. He has a postgraduate diploma in brand management from Ashridge Business School in the UK. He is an alumnus of the Calvert School Baltimore in the US and India’s Lawrence School, and is a fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India) and a member of the Aeronautical Society of India. Mathew has held a number of key assignments at Indian Oil, including heading the polymer marketing group, heading the lubricants group at subsidiary company Lanka IOC in Colombo, and assignments spread across many locations in the lubricants and aviation departments. In the field of petrochemicals he has handled polymers, PX, PTA, benzene, LAB, glycols and butadiene business. A well-known supply chain and ERP/CRM expert and analyst, he also has core experience in ship chartering for chemicals and petroleum. Mathew has been a regular speaker at international conferences in the areas of petrochemical feedstocks, polymers, ERP, CRM, detergents and benzene. He has also been a guest faculty at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, taking the course Business in a World Without Borders – Bridging the Cultural and Linguistic Divide. Read less

György Halász joined Hungarian oil and gas company MOL’s group strategy and business development unit in May 2013 where he was responsible for strategy related petrochemistry projects as well as various analytical and modelling tasks. He undertook further downstream related strategic analyses following organisational changes at MOL in 2015. György has been a member of the MOL chief economist team since October 2016, active in analysing and projecting macroeconomic and oil market tendencies. Before joining MOL, György worked in economic and business analysis in different sectors, including public finance at the Hungarian finance ministry and at Hungarian research-based consultancy Financial Research, as well as banking at Hungary’s central bank and as a service line analyst at US-based consultancy McKinsey. György has taught at different colleges and universities on subjects related to public and corporate finance as well as statistics in Hungarian and German institutions. He holds an MSc in business administration, with emphasis on finance and corporate valuation, from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration. Read less

Andy Nicholson works for Argus and is responsible for the aromatics and derivatives consulting business in Europe, the Middle East and India. He has 35 years’ experience in the petrochemical industry, including 13 years with ICI in the UK and Germany and eight years with Rhone-Poulenc/Rhodia in France. He studied at the universities of Cambridge and Freiburg and is fluent in English, German and French. Read less

Dr Norbert Niessner received his chemistry diploma from the University of Marburg in Germany in 1986, and completed his doctoral studies in polymer chemistry at the university in 1989. In 1989-1990, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow at IBM’s Almaden Research labs in San Jose, California. After joining BASF in 1990 as a research chemist, he held several positions in research and development, marketing and sales in Europe and Asia. In 2011, he joined Styrolution, a joint venture between BASF and INEOS, where he is currently Director for Global Research and Development and Intellectual Property. Dr Niessner is the inventor and co-inventor of a number of styrenic polymer technologies and products, such as Terluran® ABS polymers, anionic SBC copolymers, and Luran® S ASA polymers. He has published more than 200 scientific papers, book chapters and patents and applications. Dr Niessner recently published The Practical Guide to Structures, Properties and Applications of Styrenic Polymers. Besides styrenic polymers, his research and development record comprises synthesis and molecular dynamics of liquid crystalline polymers, co-development of world-scale polymer manufacturing technologies, new metallisation technologies and heat and UV stabilisation of polymers. Read less

Nick Osborne is an oil and gas professional with more than 20 years of experience in the industry. He has held various positions across the business since the late 1990s after graduating in chemical engineering from Imperial College. Nick has lived and worked in the UK, the Netherlands and the US in the upstream and downstream sectors and spent 16 years working in trading. He leads the base chemicals strategy for Shell Chemicals and currently works from London. Read less

Sarah has worked with Argus since March 2012 as the company’s olefins consultant focusing primarily on Europe and the Middle East. For 17 years Sarah held senior strategic purchasing management positions in Ineos, Tessenderlo Chemie (LVM) and Rhodia, responsible for a wide range of material including olefins, fertilizers and commodity raw materials. Prior to this, Sarah held various management and project roles covering most aspects of the chemical business including business management, sales, planning and logistics. She graduated in geology from Leicester University and started her career working for BP Oil. Read less

Suzy Smedts is Commercial Manager Feedstock and Cracker Products and currently heads the feedstock traders desk and cracker product managers team at Borealis. She has 25 years’ experience in the petrochemical industry, having started her career at Statoil before moving to Borealis following the merger of Statoil and Neste in 1994. Suzy’s area of expertise is related to hydrocarbons, where she has a number of logistical, operational and commercial responsibilities. Besides this she has taken up managerial roles in polyolefins, primarily in the supply chain area, including functions covering demand management, global logistics and customer service. Read less

Nicola Williams is a Director at Clarksons Platou, the world’s largest shipping services provider. Nicola joined Clarksons in 1995, where she initially worked as a Tanker Analyst within Clarksons Research. Since joining the gas division in 1999, she has been responsible for analysis of market fundamentals and freight across all sectors of the gas carrier fleet, LPG, ammonia and petrochemical gas markets. Nicola’s responsibilities include preparing performance and benchmarking reviews, business development, market analysis, consultancy and logistics strategy evaluation. Nicola speaks regularly at international LPG, ammonia and petrochemical conferences and workshops and has been a guest lecturer for the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers and Regent’s University London. She has a postgraduate degree in the politics and economics of developing economies from Cambridge University. Read less