U.S. begins buying back oil for strategic reserve

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The U.S. Energy Department said on Friday it will begin buying back oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, the first purchase since this year's record 180 MM barrel release from the stockpile, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The department will buy 3 MM barrels for delivery in February, a senior official told reporters. The 180 MM sale pushed levels in the SPR to the lowest since 1984, raising concerns about energy security.

"We'll be releasing a solicitation to purchase 3 MM barrels of oil for delivery in February of next year, 2023," the official said. "This approach will lock in a price upfront when companies submit their bids."

To help relieve supply shortages at refineries after an oil spill last week shut down the Keystone crude pipeline, the Energy Department will also execute an exchange of about 2 MM barrels from the SPR, that companies will have to send back at a later date.

"We are able to do that at the same time we're doing the 3 MM barrel buyback," the official said.

We remind, Californian regulators voted to approve a plan to reduce the state's carbon-dioxide emissions by 85% by 2045, reaching carbon neutrality then, including by cutting petroleum usage to one-tenth of the current level.
California's environmental policies have led to drastic shifts away from petroleum fuels as state regulators have sought to improve public health and reduce environmental impacts of fossil fuel production. The state has also angered its fuelmakers, which argue its policies hurt fuel consumers.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Covestro will from now on ship its plastic precursors on ships of Tailwind Shipping Lines, a subsidiary of German food retailer Lidl. Since this year, the discount giant has been developing its own capacity in sea freight due to the continuing difficulties of large shipping companies on the busy sea routes between Europe and Asia, said the company.

Currently, two of its own ships and two additional chartered ships belong to Tailwind Shipping Lines. In addition to the non-food products from and for Lidl, Tailwind offers space on these ships also for interested companies. Covestro uses this now to also become more independent from the busy main routes and shipping companies and to increase the speed and punctuality of its own deliveries.

"Ocean shipments have been severely disrupted since the pandemic began, and the scheduling accuracy of large shipowners has fallen from 70 to 20 percent," says Sucheta Govil, Chief Commercial Officer at Covestro. "To increase our reliability and punctuality, we are therefore actively looking for alternatives. With Tailwind, we have found a partner to navigate the direct route from Asia to Europe with its ships - and who is therefore exactly where it helps us."

We remind, Covestro is taking another major step forward on its path to climate neutrality. The company has signed several multi-year power purchase agreements (PPA) with CGN New Energy, including one that will cover around 30 percent of the electricity needs of the important production site in Shanghai.

Covestro is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-quality polymer materials and their components. With its innovative products, processes and methods, the company helps enhance sustainability and the quality of life in many areas. Covestro supplies customers around the world in key industries such as mobility, building and living, as well as the electrical and electronics sector.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Californian regulators voted to approve a plan to reduce the state's carbon-dioxide emissions by 85% by 2045, reaching carbon neutrality then, including by cutting petroleum usage to one-tenth of the current level, as per Reuters.

California's environmental policies have led to drastic shifts away from petroleum fuels as state regulators have sought to improve public health and reduce environmental impacts of fossil fuel production. The state has also angered its fuelmakers, which argue its policies hurt fuel consumers.

Policy updates approved on Thursday were in the 2022 edition of a document called the Scoping Plan, which is revised every five years. To achieve the 85% reduction in emissions, it requires the state to consider electrifying much of its energy usage, installing millions of heat pumps and deploying technology for carbon capture, utilization and sequestration, among other things.

Petroleum usage would have to come down by 90%, it said. The regulator, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), said in the document that the plan would create 4 MM jobs and allow the state to avoid $200 billion in pollution-related health expenditure.

The plan was needed to deal with the climate crisis that had manifested in the form of wildfires, drought and collapsing coastlines, it added.

As per MRC, Chevron said fire crews responded to an isolated fire inside its 269,000-barrel-per-day El Segundo refinery in California on Tuesday, with no injuries due to the incident. The time of dispatch was 6:13 p.m. (0213 GMT) with a response at the two-alarm level from El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Los Angeles County fire departments.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- India is taking most of Russia’s Urals crude oil loading in December as it remains top buyer for a second month in a row, according to traders and Refinitiv data, said Euronews.

Volumes and India’s share of the exports are expected to rise month on month despite a shorter loading plan for Russia’s Western ports, traders said. In November India accounted for about 53% of the total tanker shipments of the grade – the highest level on the record.

India’s share may exceed 70% of total loadings in December, according to market participants. The EU, G7 nations and Australia introduced the $60 per barrel price caps on Russian oil, effective from Dec. 5, on top of the EU’s embargo on imports of Russian crude by sea.

India is buying the Urals crude at deeper discounts this month well below USD60, four market sources said. Russian Urals used to be one of Europe’s favourite grades due to short trading cycle, cheap shipping and attractive refinery yields. The blend was purchased on a regular basis by dozens of countries across the globe.

We remind, India is considering building several refineries instead of a single mega plant planned with Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), due to challenges in acquiring land, three sources familiar with the matter said. Hurdles in land purchases are one of the key reasons for sluggish infrastructure development in Asia's third-largest economy. Aramco and ADNOC joined a consortium of Indian state-run firms in 2018 to set up a 1.2 MMbpd coastal refinery and petrochemical plant in western Maharashtra, seeking a reliable outlet for their oil.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. will decide next year whether to build a bioplastics factory in the southeastern U.S., creating one of the largest production sites worldwide for the plant-based packaging material, said Asia.nikkei.

The proposed bio-PET plastics factory, with an annual capacity of 400,000 tonnes, could open in 2025. Investment is estimated at USD550 million. Mitsui has signed a memorandum of understanding with U.S.-based chemical company Petron Scientech to explore a joint venture.

Bio-PET, short for bio-based polyethylene terephthalate, is a plant-derived version of the plastic produced from fossil fuels and commonly used in drink bottles. Carbon dioxide emissions from the factory's bio-PET plastic are expected to be 70% to 80% lower than from petroleum-derived plastic.

The Mitsui factory would procure bioethanol made from plants such as American corn and Brazilian sugar cane to produce the bio-PET plastic. Recycled bottles would be mixed into the plastic, which then would be sold to beverage makers as a container material.

Global bio-PET plastic production capacity now totals around 1 million tonnes, Mitsui said, a figure that would soar if the plant is built.Beverage makers worldwide have set goals to reduce their environmental impact, such as by increasing the use of recycled materials in packaging, but that requires an infrastructure for collecting containers. Bio-PET can complement recycling.

As per MRC, Thyssenkrupp Uhde has been selected as technology provider for a new “Blue Ammonia” plant in the United States by Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui), one of the leading ammonia marketers in the world, and CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF), the world’s largest producer of ammonia. The new greenfield facility will produce blue ammonia by leveraging carbon capture and sequestration processes to reduce carbon emissions by more than 60% compared to conventional ammonia. As a first step, thyssenkrupp Uhde will conduct a front-end engineering and design (FEED) study for the proposed joint venture of CF and Mitsui.

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