Allied has set aside 32 offices in Morristown and assigned secretarial help to assist people there to find new jobs. The company also has hired Drake-Beam & Associates for career counseling, instruction on résumé writing, and videotape-assisted coaching for job interviews. Allied spokesmen say the offices and secretarial help will be available as long as job seekers need them. Those terminated will remain on the payroll a minimum of two weeks, beginning Oct. 1. Severance pay then will be at least one week's pay per year of service, depending on job classification. In other news involving Allied, the company and Armco announced that they have settled lawsuits against one Hennessy: started reorganization plan another growing out of Allied's supplying coke and coke oven gas to W. Buirkle to head the reorganiza- Armco from batteries of the Semettion. Allied hired management con- Solvay division in Ashland, Ky. sultants Booz Allen & Hamilton to Under terms of the settlement, which assist. On Aug. 1, employees were must be approved by both boards of notified of the reorganization and directors, Allied will pay Armco $20 impending layoffs. In the next six million and turn over certain coal and weeks, word quietly passed down the related properties to Armco. Both line, reassuring many of those se- firms have agreed to end the supply lected to stay on. According to Allied contract that would have run to Oct. employees, gloom deepened in Mor- 31, 1980. The settlement thus would ristown among those not contacted. diminish assets of the Semet-Solvay Then, from Sept. 17 through 19, the division, which Allied wants to sell as a part of the reorganization. D 700 were let go.
Oil, gas will be 9 0 % of feedstocks by 2000 By the year 2000, chemical feedstocks other than oil and gas will be no more then 10% of total raw materials, according to Richard C. Perry, associate director, Feedstock & Energy Policy, at Union Carbide. Perry, speaking to an Energy Bureau executive briefing in Houston, said that this projection is a downward revision of an estimate that he made two years ago. At that time, he had said that as much as 15% of feedstocks may come from materials other than oil and gas by 1990. The Energy Bureau is a New York City firm that supplies information to and holds seminars for executives. Perry says his estimates have been revised downward because there is increasingly efficient use of feedstock and fuel resources and there are greater supplies of natural gas and imported liquefied petroleum gas. He also says the cost of switching away from natural gas is too high, considering the expected return. The cost of the switch comes largely from the amounts of energy and capital investment needed to produce the hydrogen that would be necessary to make synthesis gas, which Perry sees
as the first of the practical alternative feedstocks. Increasing availability of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is affecting the timetable for adopting alternative feedstocks, he says. As crude oil production expands, its associated natural gas by-product is increasingly being processed into LPG. Union Carbide says LPG output internationally may more than triple, so that up to 1.5 million bbl per day may be available by the mid-1980's. According to Perry, after satisfying traditional markets in Japan, Western Europe, and the U.S., "roughly half this LPG will still be looking for a home." Perry says that "candidate customers include not only electric utilities and natural gas pipelines, but also petrochemical plants in various parts of the world." According to Perry, Union Carbide believes that "it will be economical to use some of this—directly or indirectly—as a supply of petrochemical raw material in the U.S. Since this potential supply is roughly equal to the total amount of LPG now being used in the U.S. petrochemical industry, it is clear that this new supply option offers a potentially significant means of extending life expectancy of U.S. LPG-based petrochemical plants, pipelines, storage domes, etc." D
Outside group to assess Hercules' strategy An unusual step in its approach to corporate planning has been taken by Hercules Inc., Wilmington, Del., with the formation of an advisory council made up of outside scientific and business leaders. The purpose is for the council to provide Hercules and its chief executive officer with an objective assessment of the company's future business strategy. "As far as we know," says Alexander F. Giacco, Hercules president and chief executive officer, "this is the first time such an advisory group has been brought together by any large chemical corporation to assist in its continued effort to improve its planning function." The idea behind the move is that the council will be small and totally independent. It thus should berable to present opinions based on a perspective different from that normally derived within the corporation. The company figures that since the council is free of the usual statutory responsibilities of directors, it should be able to provide critical, unbiased, and effective appraisal of corporate plans, strategies, and directions, and offer alternative suggestions and solutions to problems. Hercules sees high technology as a particular area in which the council can help. Members appointed to the new council include Robert K. Mueller, chairman of the board of Arthur D. Little Inc.; William O. Baker, chairman of Bell Laboratories; Edward O. Vetter, a consultant, formerly an undersecretary of Commerce and executive vice president of Texas Instruments and currently energy adviser to the governor of Texas; and James F. Thornton, a director of Combustion Engineering and retired chairman and chief executive officer of CE-Lummus. A fifth member may yet be announced. D
Toxic waste dumper gets two years, fine Donald E. Distler, convicted last December on two counts of dumping toxic chemicals into the Louisville, Ky., sewer system, has been sentenced to two years in prison and fined $50,000. The case was the first in which federal criminal charges had been brought for polluting a waterway. U.S. District Court Judge Charles M. Allan denied Distler's request for probation, citing his "callous disregard" for public safety. Distler presSept. 24, 1979 C&EN
7
