The Wall Street Journal quoted officials of the organization as saying that OPEC was considering a radical campaign against American lawmakers and the White House. This will be the first time that OPEC has lobbied the United States in 60 years.

The message is simple: OPEC plays a vital role in helping the U.S. economy.

Although OPEC officials do not intend to meet directly with politicians and policymakers, lobbying efforts are already on the cards.

OPEC member states are concerned that OPEC may have the impact of anti-monopoly laws. The Trump administration had previously accused OPEC of pushing up oil prices.

Over the years, the United States has filed a lawsuit against OPEC, claiming that OPEC violated antitrust laws. However, because OPEC Member States enjoy the protection of sovereign immunity, the cases have been defeated by the United States. Some members of the Trump Administration have proposed that lawsuits be instituted on the basis of avoidance of immunity, and some members of the United States Congress wish to avoid such immunities.

The United States has proposed a so-called “No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act” (NOPEC), which may put OPEC in an anti-monopoly lawsuit.

However, the bill has long been on hold, and successive presidents of the United States have said they will veto any move to incorporate it into the law. But President Trump, unlike him, has been outspoken in criticizing OPEC, accusing the organization of being responsible for high oil prices, and urging it to increase output in order to relieve the pressure on the market from oil prices hovering near four-year highs. This makes OPEC and its actual leader Saudi Arabia full of concerns about his possible promotion of the adoption of NOPEC.

Last October, the media reported that OPEC had urged its members not to mention oil prices when discussing policies because they feared that the United States would be legally hit by market manipulation.

The decision not to discuss oil prices, which is a common way for OPEC to guide market expectations, highlights the extent to which Trump’s aggressive stance in the oil market has upset OPEC.

According to a recent report issued by the Chilean Copper Industry Council (Cochilco), the copper production in Chile in the next 10 years is predicted according to the current investment plan for copper projects. It is estimated that Chile’s copper production will exceed 6 million tons for the first time in 2019; if considering the possible delays in the implementation of the new project, Chile’s copper production will reach 7.06 million tons by 2029, an increase of 28.3% over 2017; if the project is not delayed, Chile’s copper production will reach 8.1 million tons by 2029; if the project is seriously delayed, Chile’s copper production will reach 5.98 million tons by 2029.

By 2029, Antofagasta will continue to be the largest copper producer in the country, accounting for 53% of the total copper production at that time; Atacama will surpass Tarapac to become the second largest copper producer, and the copper production in these two regions will account for 13% and 12% of the total copper production respectively.

Cantallopts, Director of Public Policy and Research of the Chilean Copper Industry Commission, said that production projections provided the basis for copper price forecasts. Considering the shortage of copper in the world market and the low inventory of the product, he expects copper prices to rise to $3.05 per pound in 2019 and $3.08 per pound in 2020.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, Industry and Minerals, Falkh, announced in Riyadh on September 9 that third-party auditors had surveyed 268.5 billion barrels of Saudi oil reserves by the end of 2017, higher than previously published official data. In addition, the survey also found that Saudi Arabia has 325.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, higher than the previous 307.9 trillion cubic feet.

On January 11, Beijing time, oil market traders did not receive much information about the outcome of the Sino-US trade negotiations, but optimistic expectations of progress in the negotiations helped oil prices rise. In addition, data show that crude oil production in major oil-producing countries has declined, which also supports oil prices. U.S. crude oil futures closed higher Thursday for the ninth consecutive trading day, setting the longest streak of gains in about nine years. At the same time, international Brent crude oil futures prices also set the longest continuous upward trend in more than 11 years.

West Texas Light Crude Oil (WTI) futures for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 23 cents to $52.59 a barrel, or 0.4%. According to Dow Jones Market Data, this means that WTI futures have reached their highest closing price since December 7 last year. At the same time, this also means that gold futures prices closed up for the ninth consecutive trading day, setting the longest continuous upward trend since January 2010, when they reached a ten-consecutive rise.

Meanwhile, Brent crude oil futures for March delivery on the London ICE European Futures Exchange rose 24 cents to close at $61.68 a barrel, or 0.4%, the highest close since December 4. Brent oil prices also rose for the ninth consecutive trading day, the longest run since September 12, 2007.

U.S. WTI futures have stepped out of bear market on Wednesday, up nearly 24% from the 52-week low of $42.53 a barrel hit on December 24 last year.

Powell stressed Thursday that the Federal Reserve would take a flexible and patient stance, and that if economic conditions deteriorated, it might change policy. He also said that senior Fed officials’expectations that interest rates will be raised twice this year were based on the premise that “the economic outlook for 2019 is very strong”. The Fed’s interest rate hike tends to drive up the dollar, which in general causes prices of commodity futures, such as crude oil, to fall in dollar terms, because investors in other currencies will have higher costs of buying these commodities.

The U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) reported Wednesday that U.S. crude oil stocks fell by 1.7 million barrels in the week ending January 4. By contrast, analysts had expected crude oil inventories to fall by an average of 1.4 million barrels this week, according to a S&P Global Platts survey. In addition, the report showed that gasoline inventories in the United States increased by 8.1 million barrels last week, while distillate oil (including diesel oil and heating oil) inventories increased by 10.6 million barrels, compared with an average of 4.2 million barrels expected by analysts in Standard & Poor’s Global Prussian Survey this week, and 4.3 million barrels of distillate oil inventories.

In other energy trades on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the price of RBOB gasoline futures for February delivery rose 0.4% to $1.431 a gallon, heating oil futures for February delivery rose 1.4% to $1.906 a gallon, and gas futures for February delivery fell 0.5% to $2.969 a million British heat units.

According to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Energy Information Agency, U.S. natural gas stocks fell 91 billion cubic feet (2.6 billion cubic meters) in the week ended Jan. 4, compared with an average of 84 billion cubic feet (2.4 billion cubic meters) in the week before, according to a survey by Standard & Poor’s Global Prussian, and a five-year average of 187 billion cubic inches. Rules (about 5.3 billion cubic meters).

Benzalkonium chloride

In 2018, China’s chemical imports increased and decreased differently. The imports of polypropylene and ethylene glycol increased, while the imports of styrene showed a downward trend.

Reporters learned that the national ban on imports of waste plastics in 2017 – 2018, the domestic demand for new materials increased, but also to a certain extent, to promote the growth of polypropylene imports. “In recent years, domestic imports have gradually become polarized, mainly with low-end products with price advantages and high-end special materials with competitive advantages. “Zhongyu Information Analyst Yang Juan said. “In the first and second quarter of 2018, China’s import of ethylene glycol increased markedly, mainly because downstream polyester is still in a period of high prosperity, the starting rate of polyester has increased significantly compared with previous years, in addition to the high price of ethylene glycol, the arbitrage window has opened, the import of ethylene glycol in the first quarter increased by about 19.4% compared with 2017. Under the optimistic background of anticipated demand for polyester, the growth of domestic supply of ethylene glycol is slow. As a result, the import of ethylene glycol has increased sharply, and consequently the inventory of East China Terminal has increased continuously. “Zhongyu Information Analyst Yu Xiaohong said.

Yu Xiaohong said that under the background of Sino-US trade frictions, the US dollar continued to strengthen, Chinese ethylene glycol importers were more cautious in their operation, lacking interest in purchasing the US dollar-denominated supply. In addition, with the end of the domestic maintenance season, domestic ethylene glycol production began to rise in the third quarter of 2018, and ethylene glycol imports shrank slightly in the second half of the year.

According to customs statistics, the import volume of styrene in China showed a downward trend from 2014 to 2018. “Driven by the centralized construction of domestic plant capacity in recent years, the production capacity of styrene plant has been improved qualitatively, from 1.8 million tons in 2005 to 9.35 million tons. The increase of domestic production capacity has also occupied the import quantity of styrene from the other hand. According to statistics, the current domestic share has increased from 32.7% in 2015 to 77% in 2018, and the dependence on imports has dropped to 23.7%. “Wang Chunling, an information analyst at Zhongyu, said that in the first 11 months of 2018, the main sources of styrene imports from China were Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. “Since China formally imposed anti-dumping duties on styrene from South Korea and the United States on June 23, 2018, the import volume of styrene from South Korea has been affected.

Affected by high tariffs, the import cost of domestic styrene has increased, which makes it difficult for Korea to restore its previous export volume to China. “Wang Chunling said.

According to LME data, on January 8, 2019, the total stock of copper metal was 132,350 tonnes; the total stock of aluminium metal was 1,283,500 tonnes, increasing by 7,450 tonnes per day; and the total stock of aluminium alloy was 10,600 tonnes, decreasing by 280 tonnes per day.

API crude oil stocks fell 6.127 million barrels in the week of January 4, with an expected decline of 3.3 million barrels and a pre-value decline of 4.5 million barrels.

Recent declines in crude oil costs and the start-up of new cracking units will increase propylene production in the United States in 2019, although export and unplanned shutdowns may cause some volatility in the market.

For most of 2018, tight supply of propylene in the United States led to higher prices. Propylene prices in the United States rose sharply in early 2018 due to unplanned shutdowns of some propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plants. For most of the second half of 2018, propylene prices in the United States rose due to the failure of some PDH units and the limited production of propylene in cracking units.

Although production of PDH units in the United States may continue to be unstable in 2019, propylene production from cracking units rebounded at the end of 2018, a trend that is likely to continue until 2019.

For most of 2018, propylene production in the cracking unit decreased, mainly due to the increased use of ethane raw materials in the cracking unit, which limited the production of propylene by-products.

With the new cracking plant in the United States put into operation in March and July 2018, domestic ethylene supply in the United States increased dramatically, leading to a sharp drop in ethylene prices.

Low ethylene prices have squeezed the profit margins of American cracking plants, prompting them to use more ethane, which is the most economical raw material for ethylene production. For most of 2018, strong crude oil prices supported the prices of heavier raw materials such as naphtha, propane and butane, which often made cracking heavier raw materials uneconomical.

In mid-2018, ethane accounted for more than 75% of the raw materials of cracking plants in the United States, up from 60% in the previous year.

At the end of 2018, the price of crude oil fell and the profit margin of cracking unit increased, which improved the economy of heavy cracking raw materials. Crude oil prices are not expected to rise substantially in 2019, which may maintain the economic feasibility of heavy cracking raw materials.

Due to the strong demand for U.S. fuel exports, especially for Mexico, U.S. refineries will maintain a high start-up rate in 2019, so propylene production from refineries is expected to remain strong.