World exports, natural products

About 20 percent of the world s natural gas production was exported during the late 1990s, three-quarters of it through pipelines, and the rest by LNG tankers. The former Soviet Union, Canada, the Netherlands, and Norway are the largest pipeline exporters, while Indonesia, Algeria, and Malaysia dominate the LNG trade. The largest importers of piped gas are the United States, Germany, Italy, and France Japan and South Korea buy most of the LNG. 

Canada is the world s third largest producer of natural gas and eleventh largest producer of crude oil. Canada produces much more petroleum and natural gas than is consumed in the domestic market. Consequently, petroleum and natural gas export plays a very important role in the Canadian economy. Another factor that influenced the activity in the Canadian petroleum industry was the pipeline expansion in the year 2000. This opened up new markets. A major fraction of petroleum products are exported to markets in the United States. 

Production, Import/Export, Use, and Disposal. Zinc is a metallic element commonly found in ores in the earth s crust, and natural releases to the environment can be significant. Zinc is also one of the most widely used metals in the world (Mirenda 1986). In 1989, approximately 278,900 metric tons... 

It is well known that this area of the world has large methanol feedstocks in the form of natural, associated, and refinery It is therefore not surprising that about 2 million ton new methanol production capacity came on-stream between 1983 and 1985 in the Persian Gulf and North Africa. There is very little current methanol demand in this part of the world, and most of the production is exported. At the present time, methanol production in the Middle East and Africa is dominated by Saudi Arabia and Libya. The plant in Libya started operations in 1978 and was expanded in early 1985. In early 1992, the Japanese consortium completed construction on a second plant at the Ar-Razi facility at A1 JubaiL In fact, there are some very preliminary plans to build a third methanol plant at Ar-Razi. In addition to the current methanol facilities in the Middle East, which includes the plant in Bahrain, we are aware of the following plans for other locations. 

Wool belongs to a family of proteins, the keratins, that also includes hair and other types of animal protective tissues such as horn, nails, feathers, and the outer skin layers. The relative importance of wool as a textile fiber has declined over the decades as synthetic fibers have increa singly been used in textile consumption. Wool is still an important fiber in the middle and upper price ranges of the textile market. It is also an extremely important export for several nations, notably AustraUa, New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina and commands a price premium over most other fibers because of its outstanding natural properties of soft handle (the feel of the fabric), moisture absorption abiUties (and hence comfort), and superior drape (the way the fabric hangs) (see Fibers Textiles). Table 2 shows wool production and sheep numbers in the world s principal wool-producing countries. 

Indian cumin is exported in different forms - natural seed, powdered and essential oil - to the USA, Singapore, Japan, the UK and North Africa. India is the world s largest producer and consumer of cumin, with annual production ranging between 0.1 and 0.2 million t. India exports cumin to... 

Methanol is very important both as a produet and as a feedstock in chemical industry the total world capacity is currently over 30 Mt/a and is rising at about 3% p.a. Syngas is now the only realistic feedstock for making methanol. Major plants to make it from very cheap raw materials have been built in Trinidad, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere these use methane from oil wells, which was previously flared to waste, but can easily be converted into syngas. Such methanol plants use what is termed stranded gas which is natural gas in a remote area where it cannot be economically used for any other purpose. Very large mega-scale methanol plants > 1.5 Mt/a are now built. For example in Trinidad, which is now the world s largest exporter of methanol, with a total production capacity of 6.5 Mt/a. 

In 1913, the German dye industry accounted for 88 per cent of the world s synthetic dyestuffs (by value).This monopoly was shattered in 1914. The Allied powers were forced to develop, or at least expand, their own organic intermediates and dye industries. After 1918, these strategic industries were sheltered from German competition by a number of protectionist measures. This led naturally to a fall in German dye exports, and the German share of world synthetic dyestuffs production declined to a mere 39 per cent in 1921. At the same time, the war had accelerated the movement of the German dye companies into new sectors, particularly synthetic ammonia, synthetic petrol and synthetic rubber. 

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