MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil loading at Equinor's Sture export terminal on Norway's west coast was interrupted after activists from the Extinction Rebellion group breached the facility's safety zone, the company said.
Equinor halted the loading of the TS Bergen aframax vessel, but other operations were not affected, a company spokesperson said.
Sture is a major export facility for crude, which arrives by pipeline from several offshore fields including Equinor's Oseberg, Lundin Energy's Edvard Grieg and Aker BP's Ivar Aasen, according to Equinor's website.
Activists entered the terminal's safety zone with a boat, and also blocked a road leading to the terminal. "We decided to interrupt the loading, but the terminal operates as normal," Equinor spokesperson Eskil Eriksen said.
"We have notified the police and they are handling the situation," he added. The TS Bergen's destination was Rotterdam, according to Eikon data.
As per MRC, Equinor agreed to sell its Danish Kalundborg refinery as well as an oil terminal to Geneva-based Klesch Group for an undisclosed sum. The companies declined to reveal the value of the deal, which will require approval by Danish authorities. Built in 1961 and acquired by Equinor in 1986, the facility can process 107,000 barrels a day of crude oil and condensate for gasoline, diesel, propane and heating oil, with an annual capacity of 5.5 million tonnes of oil products.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC