Argus Methanol Forum

Cai began his career at China’s ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) in 1997, before taking posts at the Chinese embassy in Canada. He then moved back to MFA, where between 2004 and 2014 he held positions in the department of American and Oceanian affairs and the department of Latin American and Caribbean affairs. He was then appointed Deputy Chief of Mission at China’s embassy in Australia, before taking up his current position as Consul General in Houston this year. Read less

Yin Chenjie is the director of the strategic support department of PKU Founder Commodities Group, responsible for research and trading of energy and chemical commodities. She previously worked for ICIS China, focusing on research in coal-to-methanol production in the alternative energy sector. With 17 years of experience working on bulk chemical commodities, Yin Chenjie has gathered wide-ranging experience from different consulting projects, including the ability to provide comprehensive analysis of energy and chemical industry supply chains, building trading frameworks, providing trading strategies and executing futures trading. Read less

Becky Zhang works for Argus in a role of Asia petrochemical analyst, mainly covering Asia’s olefins and methanol markets. She has over ten years of real-time market editor work, familiar with chemical market dynamics particularly on China market and has wide industrial networks. She has also spent two years particularly in consulting service as a project manager focusing on China market and led projects in various industries, including refinery, olefins, polymers, coal and methanol. Becky is also a regular presenter at olefins and methanol conferences and forums. Becky is a chemical engineering graduate from East China University of Science and Technology, and holds two masters’ degrees in Environmental and Energy Engineering from the University of Sheffield (2001-2002) and Entrepreneurship from the University of Nottingham (2002-2003). Read less

Mr. Lamoureaux is an entrepreneur, start-up company specialist, and Higher Alcohol patent holder who has successfully brought new products and technologies to market over the past 30 years in the chemicals and building products industries. He has been active in business development in China for the past 11 years, and has established extensive contacts in the areas of methanol production and consumption. The China National Level Joint Venture that Mr. Lamoureaux was able to secure with the Yankuang Group (the largest methanol producer in China) to promote the commercialization of pollution-reducing alcohols, was one of the first National Level JVs to be established with a development stage company. Read less

Dave McCaskill has been invested in the petrochemical industry for over 35 years. Beginning his long career with Celanese Chemical in 1975, Dave started as a chemical engineer at their Pampa, Texas plant, and steadily progressed through a series of positions ranging from planning, supply chain, field sales and marketing within the organization. Noted positions included Business Manager Ethylene Oxide/Ethylene Glycol and the last several years with the company as Business Manager Methanol & Derivatives. In 2000, Dave moved into the consulting sector and worked with another leading industry consulting organization, heading their Global Methanol service for 10 years. Joining DeWitt & Company in 2010, as Vice President Methanol & Derivatives, Dave continues to be focused on all commercial aspects of the methanol industry—supply, demand, capacity, pricing, cost structure, etc. Dave graduated from the University of Kansas, with a degree in chemical engineering, in 1975. Read less

Harry is the Executive Director of Project Gaia, a non-profit organisation that facilitates the development of alcohol fuels and clean-burning stoves around the world. Project Gaia was founded in 1995 as a research project and incorporated in 2007. For 40 years, Harry has provided support to businesses, governments and humanitarian and development organisations on resource management and energy issues. Project Gaia currently has projects in India, Haiti and eight countries in Africa. Harry was recognised in 2012 by the World Bioenergy Association with its World Bioenergy Award for his efforts to pioneer alcohol fuels for cooking and other household appliances for consumers at the base of the pyramid. Harry holds a masters in forestry from Duke University, 1974, and served for two decades in Pennsylvania county and local government. He began his career in industrial forestry in 1973 in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. Read less

Jimmy Levine is VP, Ethylene and Derivatives, based in Houston. He serves as Argus’ key subject matter expert in the ethylene and derivatives markets, develops detailed analysis of the US and global ethylene and polymers industries, and oversees preparation of Argus’ ethylene reports, including Argus Ethylene and Derivatives, Argus Olefins Outlook and Argus Ethylene Analytics. He also communicates unique insight to clients to help them understand these markets and any potential risks and rewards, and maintains forecasts and forward views of the markets so that clients can optimise their business results. Jimmy worked for 25 years at Dow Chemical, where he spent time managing global supply for the ethylene and olefins and derivatives business, six years in global business planning, and the second half of his tenure in global hydrocarbons, energy commercial, supply chain and olefins and polyolefins business optimisation. In 2011 he joined Cargill, where he helped build and manage a hedging business in ethylene, propylene, polyethylene and polypropylene. Jimmy has a BSc in chemical engineering from Mississippi State University and graduated summa cum laude. Read less

With over 20 years’ energy industry experience, Brian has bought, transported, stored, and sold Natural Gas, Crude Oil, and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) in each region of the United States.  With an extensive background in physical commodities, he also incorporates complex financial products to hedge risk, optimize upside, and capture value.  Beyond commercial commodity activities, he has provided vision and development for midstream projects – ranging from $10MM to $500MM.  Holding positions with upstream, midstream, downstream, and trading companies allowed Brian the unique perspective of varying roles in the value chain from production to consumption of Natural Gas, Crude, and NGLs.  In May-2019, Brian joined Sundance Energy, Inc. as their Vice President in charge of Gathering, Processing, Midstream, Commodity Marketing (Oil, Gas, and NGLs).  Sundance is a leading US oil and gas producer, with extensive experience and a strategy for sustainable, systematic expansion. With a strong asset base in the core of the Eagle Ford, Sundance has the expertise, cash flow, and operational efficiency to sustain long-term growth and liquidity.  Read less

Greg Dolan has held a variety of senior management positions with the Methanol Institute over the past 23 years. In June 2014, he was appointed as permanent CEO of the global methanol industry trade association, after serving as Acting CEO for four years. Mr. Dolan manages MI’s offices in Washington, Singapore, Brussels and Beijing, while directing international governmental relations, media relations, public education and outreach efforts. He has presented papers on methanol-related topics at over 100 international conferences, authored magazine articles, and written book chapters on the methanol industry. Mr. Dolan came to MI after spending a decade in a variety of public information positions in New York State, including the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Department of Transportation, and the Energy Research and Development Authority. Mr. Dolan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Boston University, and did extensive post graduate work in Political Communication at the State University of New York-Albany. Read less

In his role as chief executive of Arihant Global, Hemal Sanghani represents Fortune 500 global energy majors such as SK Group, Eni/Versalis, Nynas (Neste Group), H&R Group, and Total Oil. He has served as head of India/South Asia for energy and petrochemicals with Fortune 500 giants such as South Korea’s SK Group and Tomen (now Toyota Group). With 25 years of experience in the energy and the petrochemicals trade, particularly on the Indian subcontinent, he has presented research at conferences and advises on sourcing and marketing strategy with a keen interest in geopolitics. Arihant Global advises Fortune 500 companies on how to navigate the complicated Indian and Middle East markets. Read less

Elmar is Chief Executive of Navigance, based in the German city of Munich. He has worked as the Chief Executive and Chief Development Officer at a number of software and data-driven companies, including start-ups and publicly listed companies across Europe and in Silicon Valley. While there, he implemented and marketed artificial intelligence-based solutions for medical applications, GPS devices and production processes. As Chief Executive of Navigance he focusses on the commercialization of its data-driven process optimization solution for methanol and formaldehyde producers. Elmar graduated from Germany’s RWTH University of Aachen with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science in 1992. Read less

Christian is currently Managing Drector at Solvadis Methanol in Frankfurt, Germany. Previous to this, Christian was Product Manager from 1986 to 2000 within the Metallgesellschaft group in various chemical raw materials. Read less

Roel Salazar, is the Methanol and Derivatives Consultant for Argus DeWitt. Roel is responsible for assessing US Methanol spot prices and monthly indexes. Roel is also instrumental in preparing the Annual Global MTBE Report and MTBE Monthly Outlook. Roel joined DeWitt & Company Inc. in 2005 as an Olefins Analyst supporting the Ethylene, Propylene, and Butadiene services. Mr. Salazar joined the Fuels and Octane team in 2011 and has steadily built key client relationships with US MTBE consumers, producers and traders while helping them analyze the global MTBE and Octane markets. Roel’s previous experience includes managing system development projects in several industries. His petrochemical experience includes working at one of Mobil’s ethylene cracker in Houston between 1996 -1997. Mr. Salazar holds an undergraduate degree in Information Systems from the University of Houston. Read less

Joe Barnes is the Bonner Means Baker Fellow at the Baker Institute. Since coming to Rice University in 1995, he has written extensively on US foreign policy, with a focus on the geopolitics of energy. He is also interested in tax policy and US politics. Barnes is host of the Baker Institute podcast, “Policy Matters”. From 1979-93, he was a career diplomat with the US State Department, serving in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and south Asia. His last assignment at the state department was with the policy planning staff. Barnes graduated from Princeton University. Read less

Masato joined Sojitz Corporation in 2016 as the methanol and acetic acid marketer. Currently based in Tokyo, he is responsible for methanol markets in Asia, especially China and far-east Asia. He has a master’s degree in agriculture from the Graduate School of Agriculture at Hokkaido University in Japan. Read less

Jan Hagen Andersen is Business Development Director DNV GL Maritime, Region Americas, focusing on alternative fuels, environmental compliance, energy efficiency, and novel technologies in shipping. Jan has over 25 years of experience in the maritime industry with a focus on propulsion systems and machinery. He started his career at a marine engineering and service company in Seattle. In 2005, Jan joined DNV in the machinery section of the Maritime Technical Advisory Group based in Norway. The advisory group provides consultancy and non-class support services to shipowners, ship yards, manufacturers, designers and other stakeholders. In 2010, he moved to the DNV office in Houston, Texas. Jan is a member of the SNAME M-16 Panel on Propulsion Shafting and is on the North America Environmental Protection Association board of directors. He has a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington. Read less

Steve has more than 35 years of experience in refining and chemical plant management, engineering and operations. Steve began his long career with Total as a process engineer. He has served as an operations manager, a styrene plant manager and a refinery manager. His accomplishments include managing the world’s largest combined styrene and polystyrene complex for Total Styrenics, and later overseeing major improvement projects for clients including a refining steam cracker project in Thailand and Brazil, and a refinery in eastern Europe. Read less