Venezuela to begin 20-day maintenance at smallest refinery

Venezuela has received all the parts it needs to begin a maintenance program at the 146,000-bpd El Palito refinery, with work expected to take about 20 days, oil minister Pedro Tellechea said on Monday, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA in 2022 began receiving assistance from Iranian state firms to revamp its aging refineries. Oil ministers from both nations last week checked the state of joint projects, including the repairs at El Palito, Tellechea told journalists during a tour of oil facilities.

El Palito, located in Venezuela's central region, is the smallest refinery in a 1.3-million-bpd-capacity network that also includes facilities in Paraguana and Puerto La Cruz. Following a major revamp at El Palito that was completed in 2023, Iran and Venezuela planned repairs at the largest refining complex, the 955,000-bpd Paraguana.

A final contract has not been signed and Tellechea did not elaborate on the plans. The U.S. last month said it would reimpose oil and gas sanctions on Venezuela in April unless Caracas lifted a ban on a leading opposition figure from running in presidential elections this year and complied with other conditions it committed to through an electoral pact signed last year.

"We are not looking for a conflict," said Tellechea, adding that Venezuela has asked for 100% ofthe sanctions in place to be lifted. Venezuela, he said, had healthy inventories of domestically-produced fuel to avoid a scarcity of gasoline or diesel while El Palito suspends operations during maintenance.

PDVSA in January boosted imports of gasoline and naphtha, mainly from the United States. It also received a cargo of Russia-origin diesel, according to LSEG tanker tracking data. The company also expects to complete this year the import of up to 600 fuel trucks to replenish its fleet, the minister said.

We remind, Tecnimont has been awarded a FEED contract by MadoquaPower2X to develop an integrated green hydrogen and green ammonia plant located in the industrial zone of Sines, Portugal. MadoquaPower2x is a consortium comprised of Madoqua Renewables, Power2X and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), through its Energy Transition Fund.

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National oil company KazMunayGas (KMG) plans to purchase services for organizing charter flights for a period of 5 years through 2028, the company told Interfax.

KMG's purchase of Charter flight organization services is for a 5-year period from 2024 to 2028," KMG said.

The company said that charter flights would be used in the absence of regular passenger flights to quickly solve business and production problems, including during emergencies and accidents.

"In most cases, when business trips are expected and planned in advance, the company uses regular flights on air carriers such as Air Astana, SCAT, Qazaq Air and a number of others, as well rail services," KMG said.

At the same time, the company emphasized that payment for charter services would be made upon delivery.

"In other words, if there is no need for a charter flight, then the financial resources of KazMunayGas are not used," the company said.

Earlier, the Protenge telegram channel reported that KMG had placed an application for charter flight services worth 1.6 billion tenge.

We remind, Kazakhstan intends to boost oil deliveries through the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route or TITR to 3 million tonnes within two years. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in 2022 asked for oil transportation through the Trans-Caspian corridor to be increased. KazMunayGas and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) entered into an agreement providing for the shipment of 1.5 million tonnes of raw materials per year from the Tengiz field to Baku for further pumping through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

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Kazakhstan intends to boost oil deliveries through the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route or TITR to 3 million tonnes within two years, as per Interfax.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in 2022 asked for oil transportation through the Trans-Caspian corridor to be increased. KazMunayGas and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) entered into an agreement providing for the shipment of 1.5 million tonnes of raw materials per year from the Tengiz field to Baku for further pumping through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

The throughput capacity of the Kazakh section of the CPC pipeline was increased from 54 to 72.5 million tonnes per year.

"At the same time, active work is underway to expand the Shymkent oil refinery. As a result, its capacity will increase from 6 to 12 million tonnes per year, which will fully meet the needs of the domestic fuel and lubricants market," the press service added.

The construction of new gas processing plants in Kashagan, Karachaganak and Zhanaozen is in progress.

"It is planned to build the second and third stages of the Saryarka gas pipeline, the Aktobe-Kostanay gas pipeline and the second train of the Beineu-Bozoy-Shymkent gas pipeline. For the development of petrochemical industry, construction of the Butadiene project $1 billion worth will begin this year," the press release says.

The projects for the production of polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate and urea are being implemented in the Atyrau and Aktobe regions for a total amount of $13.7 billion.

New gas field are being put in operation. Thus, production has begun at the Rozhkovskoye, South Aksai and Anabay fields that have the recoverable reserves of over 31 billion cubic meters of gas.

In the medium term, the launch of the Urikhtau Central, Western Prorva and Kalamkas gas fields with recoverable reserves of 69 billion cubic meters of gas is expected.

We remind, imports of polymer feedstock to Russia may grow in 2024, Petr Bazunov, General Director of the Russian Plastics Processors Association (RPPA). A number of processors in our Association have decided to increase imports, as imported raw materials in Russia are sold at prices equal or close to those of SIBUR. The principle of import parity or so-called netbacks is in effect. Refiners choose the raw materials that are more profitable for them.

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The Lukoil Group will have a stake of approximately 10% in Yandex after a deal for a consortium of investors to buy the tech company has been closed, the oil company said in a statement.

"The transaction will close upon receipt of the necessary approvals and will be carried out without the participation of shareholders in Lukoil and related parties," it said.

"The acquisition of a stake in one of the digital technologies leaders is a portfolio venture investment for the Lukoil group, which is expected, among other things, to contribute to the development of high-tech solutions and increase efficiency primarily in the company's retail business," it said.

Yandex N.V . (YNV), the Dutch parent company of the Yandex group, has agreed to sell the group's Russian business to a consortium of private investors for 475 billion rubles.

The terms of the deal factor in the Russian authorities' standard requirement for at least a 50% discount on the market price when nonresidents sell assets. Yandex N.V.'s weighted average market capitalization in the three months that ended on January 31 was about $10.2 billion (918 billion rubles), and the assets included in the deal generated more than 95% of the group's revenue in the first nine months of 2023, Yandex said.

The consideration for sale will be payable in a combination of cash and Class A shares of Yandex N.V., with at least 50% of the consideration to be paid in cash. The seller will therefore receive the cash equivalent of at least 230 billion rubles in Chinese yuan and approximately 176 million Yandex N.V. Class A shares. The buyer already holds or will acquire the consideration shares, the press release said.

As a result of the deal, a recently registered international joint-stock company (IJSC) incorporated in Russia will become Yandex's parent company. The company received 99.999% of shares in Yandex LLC in January.

The principal owner of the IJSC will be Consortium.First, a closed-end mutual investment fund led by senior executives from the group's Russian business. The other members of the consortium are entities owned by oil company Lukoil , former Gazprom deputy chairman Alexander Ryazanov, Leta Capital founder Alexander Chachayev and Infinitum CEO Pavel Prass.

Yandex N.V. plans to use a portion of the net cash consideration to finance the development of the retained international businesses, and ultimately to return a substantial proportion of the proceeds to its remaining shareholders, which it expects will be through a share repurchase offer.

We remind, LUKOIL Group 2022 Sustainability Report debuted in the international Global Corporate Sustainability Awards and received a bronze class award in the Sustainability Reporting category, said the company. The category recognizes organizations for disclosure of information in transparent and credible manner. In 2023, 80 companies representing 8 countries submitted 90 applications to the contest. LUKOIL became its only Russian participant and winner. Among other Sustainability Reporting Awards winners are such companies as Delta Electronics, Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, China Airlines Ltd., Logitech International S.A. etc.

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Sales of new passenger cars in Russia in January 2024 increased 77.3% YoY versus last year's "low base" to 80,212 units, the analytical agency Autostat said, citing data from Passport Industrial Consulting JSC, as per Interfax.

The market leader is still the Russian Lada, whose sales last month increased 26.4% to 22,289 units, and its share decreased by 11.2 percentage points, to 27.8%.

Second place and first among foreign cars belongs to Chinese brand Haval, with 9,620 cars sold in January. Next are seven more brands from China: Geely (8,998 units), Chery (8,801 units), Changan (4,893 units), Exeed (2,758 units), Omoda (2,668 units), Lixiang (1,741 units) and Tank (1,733 units). All these brands showed annuals.

We remind, imports of polymer feedstock to Russia may grow in 2024, Petr Bazunov, General Director of the Russian Plastics Processors Association (RPPA). A number of processors in our Association have decided to increase imports, as imported raw materials in Russia are sold at prices equal or close to those of SIBUR. The principle of import parity or so-called netbacks is in effect. Refiners choose the raw materials that are more profitable for them.

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