Political and economic changes around the world are impacting on the way bitumen is supplied and used - Kristina Smith reports on the Argus Europe Bitumen conference in Rome, and highlights some of the new technologies being launched to address these changes
Attendees at the Argus Europe Bitumen Conference, held in Rome on 11th and 12th June heard how the global bitumen market is changing. More refineries are expected to close in Europe; the US, with its shale oil, is dominating bitumen supply to some regions; and there is a big question mark hanging over Europe’s relationship with Russia.
One of the outcomes of these changes is that bitumen is travelling further, a trend which is likely to increase in the future. And that means new ways of transporting it over long distances are emerging.
“There is going to be a change in the marketing, logistics and consumption of bitumen,” Poerner’s head of international sales Albert Troxler, told World Highways at the conference.
Poerner has invested several years in developing bitumen bags, together with an associated cooling and packing system, which can hold 1tonne of bitumen. The bags can be transported using standard trucks and ships, and stored indefinitely before being melted, whereas liquid bitumen has to be heated during transportation and can travel limited distances.
Poerner has already supplied its bagging system to refineries in Iran, Bosnia, Bahrain, and Russia. The Lukoil facility in Russia (see box) is the most recent one and began operation in December 2013.
Russian oil giant Gazprom has a different solution for the same challenge. It uses wooden crates to store and transport blocks of its polymer modified bitumen.
The picture to emerge from the Argus conference is one of two, contrasting situations in Europe. Christophe Nikodeme, director general of the
Speaking of France’s situation, Eric Gosse, Total’s vice president bitumen said: “We have lost 1 million tonnes of bitumen from the market in the last five years...where is the bottom?”
Colas’ Etienne Le Bouteiller, executive director of the International Bitumen Emulsion Federation called for more sophisticated technologies for road repairs and maintenance. “High-tech solutions need high quality materials, specifically bitumen,” he told the conference.
Some Eastern European countries have ambitious road-building plans, according to Michal Sobanski, head of export at Lotos Asfalt, but funding has been a problem. However, he predicted a rising market for bitumen in Poland between now and 2020 with PLN 60 billion (€14.5 billion) earmarked by the government for new roads.
The most positive outlook came from Tayfun Ozatalay, general manager of Energy Pro Investment Petrol who spoke about the market in Turkey. With 23,000km of roads now, Turkey has plans to grow that by 61% to 37,000km by 2023 according to Ozatalay.
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