Fire caused by lightning storm hits Venezuela Puerto la Cruz refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire caused by a lightning storm broke out at Venezuela's Puerto la Cruz refinery on Monday, leaving a tall plume of black smoke, according to government officials and sources, said Reuters.

The event is the most recent outage affecting state-run PDVSA's facilities, following another fire on the weekend that hit a fuel terminal and a tanker.

The incident left no injuries, but the flames had not been extinguished and workers were removed from the facility, located on Venezuela's eastern coast, according to oil minister Tareck El Aissami.

"The refinery's tanks and plants were not affected. But is a considerable fire within the refinery," he said on state TV.

Venezuela's deputy minister for Risk Management and Civil Protection Carlos Perez said earlier on Twitter that PDVSA's firefighters and other crews were on site fighting the flames, which began at a residual deposit in the refinery.

"A residual deposit in the industrial services area caught fire around 2 p.m.. It's a separating area where fuel goes, including leftover gasoline," one of the sources said.

As per MRC, Venezuela's second largest refinery has suspended gasoline production following an internal electrical failure, four sources with knowledge of the situation said. Work was being carried out on Sunday to resume operations of the Cardon crude oil reformer and distiller, one of the sources said. A blackout took place on Saturday afternoon at the facility, which has the capacity to process 310,000 bpd of crude, and although power has returned to the facility, production at the refinery remains halted.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Germany, the European Union's largest economy and its biggest oil market, aims to end its dependency on Russian crude oil by the end of the year due to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, said Reuters.

Some refineries, such as one at Schwedt formerly controlled by Rosneft and TotalEnergies' Leuna, formerly depended on Russian crude supplies via the Druzhba pipeline. But the German government on Sept. 17 put the Rosneft parts of the PCK Schwedt refinery and two other refineries under state trusteeship.

It is working with energy firms and Poland, and talking to Kazakhstan, to find substitutes for Russian oil. This is under legislation that allows it to take control of foreign companies in the event of an emergency.

Total has said it is seeking to end its dependence on Russian oil as soon as possible. Others, such as Miro, also partly owned by Rosneft and put under the same trusteeship, receive crude via the Transalpine (TAL) pipeline, which runs from the Mediterranean port of Trieste to Karlsruhe via Bavaria.

The Federal Network Agency, a regulator, operates the trusteeship. Varo Energy which has a stake in Bavaria's Bayernoil, where Rosneft's stake has also been put under trusteeship by Berlin, has said it uses crude from sources other than Russia. Germany received 32% of its crude oil from Russia in January to June, down from 40% before the invasion, data from statistics office BAFA showed.

In June alone, Russia's share of Germany's crude oil imports was only 24%. Most oil comes via Rotterdam but Germany also operates reception facilities at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven. The country's 10 largest refineries are together able to process 2.1 MM barrels per day or 104 million tonnes per year of crude oil.

We remind, the German government is looking at bringing the PCK Schwedt refinery, partially owned by Russian energy firm Rosneft, under state control. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Economy Minister Robert Habeck are expected to hold a news conference on Friday presenting details of the plans, Spiegel reported, citing government sources.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The growing attention of investors and lenders to ESG factors puts additional pressure on oil and gas companies, which may face difficulties in attracting investments in the future, said, said Globuc.

Energy transition and decarbonisation of the downstream industry will be among the topics explored at the Downstream Central Asia & Caspian conference in Tashkent. It is impossible to implement downstream projects without attracting investment, and today, sustainability of the production process and decarbonisation efforts of a future project have become one of the decisive factors in obtaining project financing.

Within the framework of the Paris Climate Agreement, Central Asian and Caspian countries have committed to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. In particular, by 2030 Kazakhstan will reduce them by 15%, Uzbekistan by 35% and Azerbaijan plans to cut emissions by 40% or more by 2050.

National oil and gas companies of the region have already begun to reduce their carbon footprint. Uzbekneftegaz and Technip Energies discussed the prospects and opportunities for cooperation in the field of decarbonisation of the oil and gas industry; KazMunayGas and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development signed a Memorandum of Understanding on strategic cooperation in the field of decarbonisation. BP has submitted a roadmap for the decarbonisation of the energy sector to the government of Azerbaijan.

At Downstream Central Asia & Caspian, the largest downstream oil&gas event in the region, on the 20th of October as part of the "Energy Transition and Decarbonization in Central Asia" session, participants will discuss what the refineries of the future will be like in a world with a low-carbon economy and the role of hydrogen in the energy transition.

Azamat Kozhanov, CEO at Kazakh Invest, and Ainur Tumysheva, Investment Director at Svevind will talk about the largest hydrogen project in Central Asia, the Svevind Green Hydrogen project in Kazakhstan. Bilal Guliyev, General Director for Research, Development and Innovation at SOCAR Turkey will present a report on the role and importance of R&D and innovation in accelerating decarbonization of the petrochemical and oil refining industries.

Alexey Tyurikov, Vice President, Russia and CIS at AspenTech, will share innovations to achieve ambitious sustainable development goals while simultaneously achieving profitability targets.

Gennady Tarasov, Managing Director of Innovation and Marketingat at Kazgiproneftetrans will share information about an innovative project and the prospects of cryogenic technology.

Downstream Central Asia & Caspian is an annual industry business event. In 2022, the event will be held in Tashkent on the 19-20th of October 2022. The conference will bring together representatives of oil and gas processing and petrochemical companies in Central Asia and the Caspian region, as well as leading technology suppliers from all over the world.

The conference is organised by Globuc, an international event management company based in London. Globuc specialises in high-level business events in the energy and oil&gas sectors.

Earlier it was reported that the Uzbekneftegaz National Holding Company will increase the production capacity of the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex (GCC) to approximately 505,000 tonnes of polymer products per year by the end of 2024.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- -Nexeo Plastics, a leading global thermoplastics resin distributor, is pleased to announce it is providing a series of informative online videos to help all customers, especially designers and processers navigate the entire product lifecycle, said the company.

This instructional online support is offered in partnership with Routsis Training. Nexeo Plastics aims to help tackle customers’ technical issues, while driving innovative solutions. The first video, Calculating Snap Deflection and How It Relates to a Material Stress Strain Curve, is now available at Routsis Training Videos | Nexeo Plastics.

Nexeo Plastics’ Digital Marketing Manager, Lindsay Bosnjak, said, “Our customers want more technical information regarding application development, material selection, process optimization and troubleshooting. They are searching for online solutions geared toward these capabilities, and Nexeo Plastics strives to provide them with the ability to solve their technical and material challenges. We want our customers to know that we understand their pain points, and we have the resources to support them."

Whether customers are designing an application, testing new materials, needing alternative material suggestions, or needing help with their production process, Nexeo Plastics’ technical team can provide support.

Built on decades of technical experience, Nexeo Plastics’ technical support team can help customers succeed in today’s challenging market. From concept to commercialization, the technical support team works alongside customers through material selection, testing and troubleshooting, process optimization and application development.

We remind, Nexeo Plastics, a leading global thermoplastics resin distributor, is pleased to announce an agreement with Highsun Engineering Plastics Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Highsun Holding Group (also known as HSCC), to provide high-quality virgin polyamide resins to customers in the Americas.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- TotalEnergies, along with its partners, has signed an Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement (EPSA) with the Ministry of Energy and Minerals (MEM) of the Sultanate of Oman in the onshore Block 11, said the company.

The first stage of the EPSA activities will see seismic acquisition in late 2022, with a first exploration well planned to be drilled in 2023. TotalEnergies will hold a 22.5% interest in the block, OQ 10% and Shell with 67.5% will be the operator. Block 11 contains undeveloped discoveries and exploration potential.

"Our recent activities in Oman are a demonstration of TotalEnergies’ strategy of transformation into a multi-energy company. Today’s entry into the Block 11 gives us the opportunity to unlock additional potential to meet domestic and export gas demand. It strengthens our strategic relationship with the Sultanate of Oman, as illustrated last December by our entry into the neighbouring Block 10 gas concession, and the start of construction last July of 17-megawatt-peak solar photovoltaic systems providing power to a desalination plant”, said Laurent Vivier, Senior Vice President Middle East and North Africa, Exploration and Production, at TotalEnergies.

H.E. Eng. Salim bin Nasser Al Aufi, Minister of Energy and Minerals in Oman said: “There is a continuous focus in MEM on enhancing the natural gas reserves of the Sultanate of Oman through exploration and appraisal activities undertaken by several companies in the country. This agreement strengthens the strategic relations with partners in the sector such as Shell, TotalEnergies, OQ and others to ensure Oman’s energy security and attract more foreign investment, adding the highest value to the local supply chain."

We remind, TotalEnergies ENEOS Renewables announced the appointment of Gavin Adda as chairman of the new joint venture. Based out of Singapore, Gavin Adda is also the CEO of TotalEnergies Renewables Distributed Generation (DG) Asia Pacific, a Board of Director at Maxeon Solar Technologies (NASDAQ:MAXN) and co-chairman of the Sustainability Committee at the European Chamber of Commerce, Singapore.
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