Fire broke out at Pertamina refinery complex in Indonesia

Fire broke out at Pertamina refinery complex in Indonesia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Fire has broken out at a fuel storage unit at Pertamina's refinery complex in Cilacap, central Java, the Indonesian energy company said on Saturday, adding residents close to the scene would be evacuated, said Reuters.

Pertamina is making efforts to extinguish the blaze and prevent it from spreading, it said, while ensuring the safety of people in the area.

The fire started at around 19.20 local time (1220 GMT) and the cause is not yet known, Pertamina said. Mobile phone videos broadcast on local media showed a large blaze, casting the evening sky orange.

"Extinguishing efforts are being carried out intensively on the burning tank, while the surrounding tanks are being cooled with water sprinklers to prevent the fire from spreading," Pertamina said in a statement. "For people located in the area closest to the location, an evacuation will be carried out to move the community to a safer place," it added.

Pertamina spokesperson Heppy Wulansari said the fire had only affected the storage unit and the company was monitoring the situation before deciding whether it might be necessary to shut the refinery. Cilacap refinery is one of Pertamina's biggest refining facilities, with a capacity of 348,000 bpd.

As per MRC, PT Pertamina is in plans to resume operations at its sole polypropylene (PP) plant in Plaju, South Sumatera this week after a scheduled maintenance. The outage at the company's 47,000 mt/year of PP plant began on 16 September and was to last for about 17 days. Thus, this plant was initially scheduled to resume operations on 3 October, 2021.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
MRC

Demand for fuel and gasoline surged in October in Indias, sales hit record

Demand for fuel and gasoline surged in October in Indias, sales hit record

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's fuel demand rose in October to a seven-month peak, with gasoline sales surging to an all-time high, government data showed on Tuesday, as festivals boosted mobility and economic activity in the world's third biggest oil consumer, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Fuel consumption, a proxy for oil demand, rose over 12% to 17.87 MM tons last month from September. It was up 0.8% from the corresponding period last yer and 3% from October 2019, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) showed. Consumption got a boost from the start of the festival season in October, offsetting the impact of high prices, Refinitiv analyst Ehsan Ul-Haq said.

October's sales of gasoline, or petrol, were 8.3% and 3.4% higher than in 2019 and 2020 respectively and at 2.75 MM tons, was the highest-ever monthly figure recorded as per data going back to 1998. Improving vaccination coverage and the opening up of schools, colleges and offices helped demand, said Prashant Vasisht, vice president and co-head, corporate ratings at ICRA.

Diesel sales, which typically rise ahead of the Diwali festival, rose nearly 20% from September to 6.61 MM tons, helped along by the quickest monthly expansion in the country's factory activity in eight mos. Consumption of diesel, which accounts for about 40% of India's refined fuel sales, was also up 1.5% from October 2020, but down 5.6% year-on-year.

India, Asia's third-largest economy, reduced excise duty on petrol by 5 rupees ($0.0674) per liter, and that on diesel by 10 rupees (USD0.1348) per liter, last week. The lower prices and an uptick in economic activity should also aid diesel demand, ICRA's Vasisht added. Compared to last yr, sales of cooking gas, or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), increased nearly 3% to 2.49 MM tons, while naphtha sales fell 5.2% to 1.28 MM tons.

As per MRC, Indian state refiners' gasoline and gasoil sales rose in June compared with a month earlier, preliminary industry data showed on Thursday, as states across the country eased coronavirus-related restrictions as cases fell. Gasoline sales by state refiners rose 29.4%, while diesel sales were up 18.5% in June compared with May, the data showed. Sales had declined by about a fifth in May from a month earlier due to lockdowns across the country.

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 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MRC

Several African countries plan to tackle poverty and energy shortages

Several African countries plan to  tackle poverty and energy shortages

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Several African countries plan to exploit their oil and gas reserves to tackle poverty and energy shortages, representatives gathered in Dubai said this week in the face of pressure to end fossil fuel extraction to curb global warming, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Officials and industry executives stressed that Africa as a whole has a relatively small carbon footprint, which Statista estimated accounted for 3.7% of global CO2 emissions in 2020. "We want to develop our resources as Africa, just as our brothers in the West have done," John Munyes, Kenya's minister of petroleum and mining, told the Africa Oil Week conference in Dubai, which coincided with the second week of the United Nations COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

"Much of Kenya is renewables, we just want to tap into what God has given us: hydrocarbons," he added. Across the African continent, where some 600 MM people lack electricity, both well-established and emerging producers are seeking to accelerate hydrocarbon extraction. "We understand that we have to mitigate the damage to the planet. That's why we have signed up to the energy transition," Thomas Camara, Ivory Coast's minister of mines, petroleum and energy, said.

"But for our African nations, we have to ensure that our populations have access to energy … We will not turn our back to oil and energy companies so we can ensure the happiness - and even the existence - of our populations." Some two dozen African countries pitched their energy sectors to investors during the event in Dubai.

OPEC member Angola, where production peaked in 2008 and has been steadily declining for the past half-decade, plans to develop more fields including through licensing rounds for onshore blocks in 2023 and offshore blocks in 2025. Output in 2031 is projected to slightly exceed last year's roughly 1.3 MMbpd.

Ghana, which discovered oil in 2007 and began extraction at the end of 2010, will channel investments to oil and gas development to then use the proceeds to invest in infrastructure and social welfare such as healthcare and education, its deputy energy minister, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, said. "We believe strongly in oil and gas, and in particular gas" to ensure reliable energy baseloads, he added.

Western oil and gas companies looking to develop deposits in Africa face growing pressure over environmental concerns, which are leading them to accelerate plans as the world transitions to renewable forms of energy such as solar and wind. "We have to come up with processes that enable us to convert a discovery into production as quickly as we can, because the clock is ticking. The clock is ticking in terms of the energy transition," said Paul McCafferty, senior vice president Africa at Norwegian energy major Equinor.

Industry executives said among the challenges they now face was securing sufficient capital for hydrocarbon projects. Top oil exporters Angola, and to a lesser extent Nigeria, are facing crude production declines due to lack of investment in expensive deepwater oil fields, partly because oil companies are allotting less funding to fossil fuels.

Africa Oil Corp CEO Keith Hill said the energy transition process needs to be balanced and that it was more of a 30-yr process than a five or 10-yr one. For Uganda, hydrocarbons are necessary to reshape the economy, its energy minister said, and it is counting on a pipeline through Tanzania to the Indian Ocean coast that will help Uganda export its crude. "We have a duty to provide jobs for our people. We have a duty to make sure that the distribution of electricity goes to the last person," Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa said.

As per MRC, Dangote’s 650,000 barrels per day (BPD) oil refinery project has been identified as one of the oil distillation companies that would boost global refining capacity by 6.9 million barrels per day between 2021 and 2026. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which made this disclosure in its 2021 World Oil Outlook released recently, said Africa’s medium-term outlook appears more optimistic with 1.2 million barrels-per-day (mb/d) of new capacity expected by 2026; half of which is to be accounted for by the 650,000 BPD Dangote Oil Refinery project in Nigeria, which is likely to come on stream in 2022.

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 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MRC

PKN Orlen given EC deadline extension on remedies in takeover of Grupa Lotos

PKN Orlen given EC deadline extension on remedies in takeover of Grupa Lotos

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Poland’s PKN Orlen said on Friday that the European Commission has extended the deadline for the realisation of remedies in its planned takeover of Polish refiner Grupa Lotos to 14 January 2022, said the company.

"The complexity of the process in a very demanding macroeconomic environment requires additional time to negotiate with partners in order to obtain the best possible transaction conditions and enable corporate decisions to be made also on the part of the partners," Orlen said.

In a parallel effort to the process of merging with Grupa LOTOS, work is underway on PKN Orlen’s acquisition of the PGNiG Group. The objective is to form a group with total annual revenue of approximately PLN 200bn and diversified EBITDA, estimated at approximately PLN 20bn. This means that in terms of capitalisation and financial results, the potential of the future Polish multi-utility group will match or even exceed that of its European competitors.

The acquisition of Grupa LOTOS by PKN Orlen was initiated already in February 2018 by signing a Letter of Intent with the Polish State Treasury, which holds 53.19% of voting rights at the General Meeting of the Gdansk-based company. In November 2018, a draft application for approval of the concentration was submitted by PKN ORLEN to the European Commission. In early July 2019, the final application was submitted to the European Commission, and on July 14th 2020 the Commission conditionally cleared the acquisition of Grupa LOTOS by PKN ORLEN. In August 2020, PKN ORLEN has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Polish State Treasury and Grupa LOTOS concerning its acquisition of Grupa LOTOS shares and thus control of the Gdansk-based group. In May 2021, PKN Orlen, Grupa LOTOS and the Ministry of State Assets signed an agreement on the structure of the new multi-utility group to be established through the merger of three companies: PKN Orlen, LOTOS and PGNiG.

The oil and petrochemicals company added that it expected the formal completion of the takeover of fellow state-controlled Lotos within the first half of next year. Orlen is Poland’s largest refiner, while Lotos is its second largest.

As per MRC, in August 2020, PKN Orlen signed a non-binding agreement with the state treasury and Grupa Lotos to shape a deal to take direct or indirect capital control of fellow state company Lotos.

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 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

PKN Orlen would be the first refining and petrochemicals company in Europe to use the Honeywell UOP MaxEne technology for molecule management of a naphtha stream to produce high-quality products including olefins, aromatics and gasoline.
MRC

Petrobras sells its shale oil unit to Canadian bank for USD33 mln

Petrobras sells its shale oil unit to Canadian bank for USD33 mln

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras signed a contract to sell its Shale Industrialization Unit (SIX) for USD33 MM to Forbes & Manhattan Resources, reported Reuters with reference to the company's statement in a filing on Thursday.

The refining unit is in Parana state on one of the world's largest reserves of oil shale, a sedimentary rock with organic matter that can be converted to oil and gas by heating.

It is the third refinery Petrobras has sold in its divestment strategy that will in total sell eight refineries.

The buyer is wholly owned by Forbes & Manhattan Inc, a private merchant bank based in Toronto, Canada.

Petrobras said USD3 MM has been paid to guarantee the sale. The deal is still subject to approval by Brazil's antitrust regulator CADE.

As MRC informed before, Petrobras said earlier this month it had halted talks with Brazilian conglomerate Ultrapar on the sale of the state-run oil company's Refap refinery, part of its program to sell eight plants. The company said it would relaunch the process of selling Refap in the future but did not provide a date.

We remind that in August 2021, Petrobras hired JPMorgan Chase & Co as an advisor to sell its stake in the petrochemical company Braskem SA.

We also remind that Braskem is no longer pursuing a petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem's back burner for several years.

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 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
MRC