Gazprom has booked no additional gas export capacity at Slovakia-Ukraine border for June

Russia’s Gazprom has not booked additional gas transit capacity for exports to Europe via Velke Kapusany on the Slovakia-Ukraine border for June, auction results showed, although it already has some capacity booked under an existing deal, said Reuters.

In total, 70.4 MMcm3 per day of capacity was on offer at the auction. Under its existing supply contract, Gazprom automatically has gas transit capacity booked, which means gas will continue to flow in June. However, the company can book additional capacity if it needs it, an industry source said.

Gazprom also has not booked gas transit capacity for exports via the Yamal-Europe pipeline for June, results of another auction showed.

In January, Gazprom completed a feasibility study for the Soyuz Vostok pipeline that would become an extension of the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline through Mongolia and which would have a capacity of 50bcm/year. In addition to the latest supply contract and the existing Power of Siberia contract, this would take potential nameplate supply from Russia to China close to 100bcm/year.

We remind, that in December 2020, SIBUR Holding, Russia’s leading petrochemicals company and one of the most rapidly growing petrochemicals businesses globally, and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), China’s leading energy and chemical company, have closed the deal to set up a joint venture (JV) at the Amur Gas Chemical Complex after obtaining all the necessary approvals from the regulators of both countries. SIBUR and Sinopec will hold interest in the JV in the amount of 60% and 40%, respectively.

PJSC Gazprom is a Russian energy company engaged in exploration, production, transportation, storage, processing and sale of gas, gas condensate and oil, as well as production and sale of heat and electricity. The largest company in Russia, the largest gas company in the world, owns the longest gas transmission system (over 160,000 km). It is the world leader in the industry.
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Oil prices were mixed on Monday as investor fears of a global recession spurred by lockdowns in China and weak economic data vied with signs the European Union was stepping closer to an import ban on Russian crude, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Brent crude was down 18 cents, or 0.2%, at USD111.37 a barrel at 1342 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 2 cents, or less than 0.1%, to USD110.51 a barrel. The fall in oil prices "is chiefly due to the weak Chinese economic data, as the lockdown measures are having a direct impact on the world’s second-largest market," said Barbara Lambrecht, energy analyst at Commerzbank.

It is estimated that 46 cities in China are under lockdowns, hitting shopping, factory output and energy usage. Latest Chinese data showed retail sales in April shrank almost 11% from a year earlier, while factory production fell 2.9% year-on-year. In line with the unexpected industrial output decline, China processed 11% less crude oil in April, with daily throughput the lowest since March 2020.

However, oil prices found some support as the European Union's diplomats and officials expressed optimism about reaching a deal on a phased embargo of Russian oil despite concerns about supply in eastern Europe. Austria expects the EU to agree on the sanctions in the coming days, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on Monday. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the bloc would need a few more days to find agreement.

"With a planned ban by the EU on Russian oil and slow increase in OPEC output, oil prices are expected to stay close to the current levels near USD110 a barrel," said Naohiro Niimura, a partner at Market Risk Advisory. Meanwhile, U.S. gasoline futures set an all-time high again on Monday as falling stockpiles fuelled supply concerns. "Oil prices will remain bullish, especially WTI's near-term contract, as U.S. gasoline prices continued to rise amid weaker imports of petroleum products from Europe," said Kazuhiko Saito, chief analyst at Fujitomi Securities.

As per MRC, Russian fuel oil arrivals in the UAE oil hub of Fujairah are set to jump sharply to about 2.5 MM barrels this month, data shows, in a sign that flows of Russian oil and refined products are shifting away from Europe.

We remind, oil prices fell on Monday as concerns over weak economic growth in China, the world's top oil importer, overshadowed fears supply might be crimped by a potential European Union ban on Russian crude.
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Chevron Corp's Gorgon carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Australia is working at only half its capacity nearly three years after starting up and the company has no timeframe for delivering on targets it has so far failed to meet, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The world's largest CCS project, which started up three years late, is being closely watched by the gas industry globally as carbon capture and storage is seen as essential for producers to meet net zero emissions targets by 2050.

Gorgon CCS had originally been slated to be fully operational by last year when the project faced its first five-year rolling assessment. Instead, it was forced to buy carbon credits for falling short of goals for burying emissions from the Gorgon LNG plant. The project was designed to bury 4 MMtons of CO2 annually but only managed 2.1 MMtons last year.

Judd said the company would continue to work with the Western Australian government to offer offsets to make up for any shortfall assessed each year. He did not say how much Chevron had spent on the 5 MM GHG offsets surrendered on behalf of the Gorgon partners, which include fellow majors Exxon Mobil Corp and Shell.

Australian Carbon Credit Units soared to a high of A$57 a ton in January when Chevron was buying offsets. At those prices, the offsets would cost more than AD250 MM but not all the offsets were bought on the Australian market.

Despite the challenges faced by the AD3 B (USD2 B) project off the coast of Western Australia, Chevron is looking for other CCS opportunities in Australia and elsewhere. In Southeast Asia alone BP plc, Indonesia's Pertamina and Malaysia's Petronas are working on CCS plans.

As per MRC, Chevron and ExxonMobil have signed separate agreements with state energy company PT Pertamina to explore lower carbon business opportunities in Indonesia. Chevron signed an MoU through its subsidiary, Chevron New Ventures Pte. Ltd, and is looking at potential businesses in new geothermal technology, carbon offsets through nature-based solutions, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), Pertamina said.

We remind that Chevron Phillips Chemical, a joint venture of Phillips 66 and Chevron, will make a final investment decision on a new cracker in far southeast Texas in 2022, followed by an FID in 2023 on an USD8 billion joint venture petrochemical complex along the US Gulf Coast in 2023.
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Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports in March fell to 7.235 MMbpd, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Crude oil exports in March fell about 1% from about 7.307 MMbpd reported for February. Meanwhile, the world's largest oil exporter's March crude production rose to its highest level in about two years at 10.300 million bpd from 10.225 MMbpd in the previous month.

Saudi Arabia is on track to lift oil production capacity by more than 1 million bpd to over 13 MMbpd by the end of 2026 or start of 2027, the energy minister said on Monday. Saudi Arabia's domestic crude refinery throughput rose 0.267 MMbpd to 2.773 MMbpd in March while direct crude burn rose 44,000 bpd to 335,000 bpd.

The country posted a budget surplus of USD15.33 B in the first three months of 2022, the finance ministry said, bolstered by a 58% jump in oil revenue as prices surged. Monthly export figures are provided by Riyadh and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to the Joint Organizations Data Initiative, which published them on its website.

As per MRC, Ukraine has signed contracts to import 300,000 tons of diesel and 120,000 tons of petrol to cover consumption in May as Russia targets Ukrainian fuel infrastructure. Russia has destroyed 27 fuel depots and the Kremenchuk oil refinery in central Ukraine since it launched its Feb. 24 invasion, the government official said at a government meeting.

We remind, Russian fuel oil arrivals in the UAE oil hub of Fujairah are set to jump sharply to about 2.5 MM barrels this month, data shows, in a sign that flows of Russian oil and refined products are shifting away from Europe.
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Shenghong Refining and Chemical has achieved on-spec products from its new 16m tonne/year refinery at Lianyungang in Jiangsu province, indicating successful start-up of the facility, said the company.

Distillate products, including gasoline, diesel, kerosene and wax oil, have all passed quality test and meet standard requirements. The refinery was commissioned in early May.

The project allows Shenghong to realise integration from upstream refining to downstream paraxylene/ethylene glycol, purified terephthalic acid (PTA), polyester and fibre, it said.

As MRC informed before, initially Shenghong Petrochemical planned to start test runs at its 320,000-bpd crude unit in August or September, 2021.

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 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
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