South Korea truckers return to work after strike deal

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea's unionised truckers headed back on the roads on Wednesday after the union and the transport ministry reached a tentative late-night agreement, ending a nationwide strike that crippled ports and industrial hubs, said Reuters.

Shares in some affected industries rose in early trade, after the eight-day strike had delayed cargo shipments from autos to cement and alcohol, costing South Korea more than USD1.2 billion (SD1.7 billion) in lost output and unfilled deliveries.

"So the strike has been called off until our demands are passed in parliament,” said Mr Park Jung-hoon, an official at the union’s Busan chapter, referring to the process the transport ministry must undertake to implement the agreement.

The union was demanding the extension of the freight rate system to help drivers cope with rising fuel prices. The system was introduced in 2020 for a three-year run, aimed at preventing dangerous-driving practices, such as cargo overload, and guaranteeing minimum rates for truckers. It was due to expire this year.

The strike, which started on June 7, had roiled industries amid fears of higher costs and wider upheaval to global supply chains after Covid-19 lockdowns in China and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

As per MRC, thousands of South Korean truckers were on strike for the seventh day on Monday, protesting over pay as fuel costs surge, disrupting production, slowing port operations and posing new risks to a strained global supply chain. South Korean industries, including auto, steel, petrochemical and cement, faced accumulated losses worth about 1.6 T won (USD1.2 B) as of Sunday due to the ongoing trucker strike, the industry ministry said. Following are details of the disruption, lost production and reactions from union officials and businesses.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- TotalEnergies has entered into an agreement with Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) to acquire a 25% interest in Adani New Industries Ltd. (ANIL), said Globalhydrogenreview.

ANIL will be the exclusive platform of AEL and TotalEnergies for the production and commercialisation of green hydrogen in India. ANIL will target a production of 1 million t of green hydrogen per year (Mtpa) by 2030, underpinned by around 30 GW of new renewable power generation capacity, as its first milestone.

In order to control green hydrogen production costs, ANIL will be integrated along the value chain, from the manufacturing of equipment needed to generate renewable power and produce green hydrogen, to the production of green hydrogen itself and its transformation into derivatives, including nitrogenous fertilizers and methanol, both for the domestic market and export. To start with, ANIL intends to develop a project to produce 1.3 Mtpa of urea derived from green hydrogen for the Indian domestic market, as a substitution to current urea imports, and will invest around USD5 billion in a 2 GW electrolyser fed by renewable power from a 4 GW solar and wind farm.

This partnership is based on the remarkable complementarity of the two companies. Adani's portfolio will contribute its deep knowledge of the Indian market, execution capabilities, and operations and capital management excellence. TotalEnergies will offer its thorough understanding of the global markets, expertise in renewable technologies and large-scale industrial projects, and financial strength, enabling ANIL to lower its financing cost. The partners' complementary strengths will help ANIL deliver the largest green hydrogen ecosystem in the world, which will enable the lowest green hydrogen cost to the consumer.

The investment in ANIL marks another major step in the strategic alliance between TotalEnergies and Adani Group – India’s leading energy and infrastructure platform – whose operations across India include LNG terminals, gas utility business, renewable power generation, and now green hydrogen production. It will amplify the key role that TotalEnergies and Adani intend to play in the energy transition, and in helping India decarbonise its mobility, industry, and agriculture, while also contributing to the country’s energy independence.

As per MRC, TotalEnergies' Leuna refinery in eastern Germany is reducing its intake of Russian crude oil via the Druzhba pipeline as it has started working on a supply solution via the Polish port of Gdansk. Druzhba feeds not just Leuna but also the PCK Schwedt refinery, majority-owned by Russia's Rosneft. Poyanne said Russian oil use in May had fallen to filling 555,000 tons of refinery capacity at the plant, down from 900,000 tons last October, and 800,000 tons in February.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is expected to meet with refining executives on June 23 as tensions between the White House and the oil industry mount over soaring gasoline prices, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The planned talks come as President Joe Biden, under pressure over high gasoline prices, has demanded that oil refining companies explain why they are not putting more fuel on the market as they reap windfall profits.

The Energy Department had no comment, but referred to a letter Biden sent on Wednesday to executives from companies, including Marathon Petroleum Corp, Valero Energy Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp, that said he had directed Granholm to hold an emergency meeting and engage the National Petroleum Council in coming days. The NPC is a privately-funded panel that makes recommendations to the energy secretary and executive branch.

The U.S. oil industry's main trade groups pushed back on the Biden administration on Wednesday in a letter to Biden, pointing out that the nation's oil refineries are already running at close to full capacity. "Any suggestion that U.S. refiners are not doing our part to bring stability to the market is false," said Chet Thompson, the head of the American Fuel and Petrochemicals Manufacturers.

Energy companies are enjoying bumper profits since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as punitive U.S. sanctions against Moscow add to a global supply squeeze driving crude prices above USD100 a barrel and U.S. gasoline prices to records over USD5 a gallon.

U.S. refiners, meanwhile, are running at near-peak levels to process fuel - currently at 94% of capacity, according to government data.

The White House, concerned about voter anger ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections, has already attempted to curb energy inflation by releasing record amounts of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and by waiving some anti-smog regulations for summertime blends of gasoline.

But administration officials are in touch with the refining industry to determine if there are other actions that can be taken to increase fuel supplies.

As per MRC, U.S. President Joe Biden demanded oil refining companies explain why they are not putting more gasoline on the market, sharply escalating his rhetoric against industry as he faces pressure over rising prices. Biden wrote to executives from Marathon Petroleum Corp , Valero Energy Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp and complained they had cut back on oil refining to pad their profits, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters. The letter is also being sent to Phillips 66, Chevron Corp, BP and Shell, a White House official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shell is building larger vessels that can carry more carbon dioxide over longer distances as part of the company's plans to expand its carbon capture storage (CCS) business globally, said Reuters.

The ability to ship large volumes of CO2 from industrial sites to offshore CCS hubs is critical in improving the economies of scale for these projects. CCS is aimed at decarbonising heavy industries such as refining, cement and steel.

As part of the Northern Lights project in Norway, Shell's joint venture with Equinor and TotalEnergies, the companies will build two ships capable of carrying 7,500 cubic metres of CO2.

Shell is leading the design and construction of the vessels, which will be powered by liquefied natural gas, the company said. Steel-cutting will take place in the third quarter, while the ships will be ready for delivery in 2024.

The company said it is also making larger vessels that can travel over longer distances, as well as finalizing the design for a 12,000-cubic meters ship.

Designs for vessels with capacities of 36,000, 40,000 and 70,000 cubic meters are in progress, according to the company.

Shell operates the Quest CCS facility near Edmonton, Alberta, and is a partner in the Gorgon CCS in Australia. It is also working on several similar projects across Canada, Europe and the Asia Pacific.

As per MRC, Shell Overseas Investments B.V. and B.V. Dordtsche Petroleum Maatschappij, subsidiaries of Shell plc, have completed the sale of Shell Neft LLC, Shell’s retail stations and lubricants business in Russia, to PJSC LUKOIL.
This follows the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals. The sale agreement was announced on May 12, 2022. All people currently working for Shell Neft, more than 350 in total, will remain employed by Shell Neft, which is now owned by LUKOIL.

In addition, Shell in its reporting for the first quarter of 2022 recognized the cost of leaving Russian assets at USD 3.9 billion after taxes. Earlier, she informed that the losses could amount to USD 4-5 billion.

Shell is a British-Dutch oil and gas concern engaged in the extraction, processing and marketing of hydrocarbons in more than 70 countries.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Europe’s strict regulations and challenging targets for the decarbonization of transports are driving a rapidly growing demand for bio and low carbon fuels, with bioethanol alone expected to show a CAGR of over 4% during the 2022-2027 period, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

As part of its green acceleration roadmap, Maire Tecnimont Group’s NextChem partnered up with Brazil-based GranBio in 2020 to co-develop and co-license the 2G ethanol technology which converts non-food lignocellulosic biomass into low-carbon second generation biofuels.

The European patent for GranBio’s 2G ethanol production technology (GP3+) has now been officially granted in 31 countries including those rich in feedstocks such as Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia.

Such technology is a flexible and profitable solution to produce second generation bio-ethanol, a globally used fuel with enormous potential as feedstock for green chemistry processes. GranBio has been successfully producing 2G ethanol since 2014 at its plant located in Sao Miguel dos Campos, in Alagoas (Brazil), the first and only one of this kind currently operating on an industrial scale.

The partnership between NextChem and GranBio combines exclusive Technology development and Co-Licensing for the conversion of agricultural waste and residues in second generation bioethanol, leveraging on NextChem's engineering and technology competences and the Group’s EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) expertise, its global presence and vast offering of integrated services.

Validated technologies like GP3+ will play a significant role in the development of a new industrial infrastructure for sustainable mobility needed to meet EU targets by 2035. NextChem and GranBio will keep contributing to the process of decarbonizing the fuel sector in an efficient, profitable, and carbon-neutral way.

As per MRC, Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. announces that its main subsidiaries Tecnimont S.p.A. and Tecnimont USA has been awarded a new urea diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) project in the US, by the same leading global chemicals producer that recently awarded to Tecnimont a blue ammonia project. The contract value is approximately $185 MM. The urea DEF plant, which will be based on Stamicarbon’s proprietary technology (part of Maire Tecnimont Group), entails a 1,500 tpd urea production unit plus the necessary utilities and facilities, including a CO2 purification plant.
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