Haldia Petchem plans oil-to-chemical project in southern India

The Chatterjee Group in talks with local and global companies to partner with its majority-owned petrochemical firm Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd to build a more than US10 bn project in southern India, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The private equity firm plans to build the oil-to-chemical project, capable of producing 3.5 million metric tons per year (tpy) of ethylene and propylene, at Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu by 2028 to 2029, Haldia CEO Navanit Narayan said on Monday, adding the project is expected to reach financial closure by the end of 2024.

"What we are producing as chemicals, we can add more value to it. There is a huge market because most of the chemicals we are looking at are imported into India. So the margins are much better," he said.

HPL operates a 1 million tpy petrochemical plant in eastern India and is building the country's largest integrated phenol project at Haldia. The company wants to boost profits by locally producing specialty chemicals.

In 2021, Haldia took over a moribund oil refinery project in Cuddalore from Nagarjuna Oil that was shut down after damage from a cyclone in 2011. The planned project was set to process 120,000 barrels per day of oil.

Indian firms are boosting their petrochemical production capacity as the country's expanding economy raises the need for goods ranging from plastics to paints and chemicals such as monoethylene glycol, used for making textile fiber and polyester resins.

While India's western part is "crowded" with petrochemical projects, the south lacks a large petrochemical project to meet regional demand, Narayan said. "So, I think that definitely is a place to be and it's also a very economically developed part of the country. We clearly see that as an advantage," Narayan said.

India's petrochemical consumption is about one-third of the global average and the nation relies heavily on imports for meeting its specialty chemicals needs. "Our assessment is that India needs a cracker of global scale every 18 months because we are growing at more than 7%-8% annually as an industry," he said.

We remind, HPCL planned to start a 9 million tpy refinery and petrochemical project in the northwestern state of Rajasthan by January. Last year, HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL), a joint venture between state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Mittal Energy Investment, started a 1.2 million tpy petrochemical cracker in Punjab, northern India.

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Sadara Basic Services Co. said that its parent company, Sadara Chemical Co., received an official notice from Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) stating an increase in feedstock price, according to a statement to Tadawul, said Agraam.

The expected financial impact will be approximately a 1% increase in the company's cost of sales based on the latest audited annual financial statement.

The statement also added that this impact is expected to appear starting from Jan. 1, 2024.

The company continues enhancing its business efficiency and development responsibly and sustainably in accordance with its strategic plan.

We remind, Sadara Chemical Co has incurred a second-quarter 2023 net loss of Saudi riyal (SR) 1.39bn (USD371m), reversing a profit in the previous corresponding period, as sales slumped by 49%. In a filing to the Saudi bourse Tadawul, Sadara cited lower average selling prices and sales volumes for the deterioration in its profitability on a year-on-year basis.

Sadara Chemical Co is a joint venture between state-owned energy giant Saudi Aramco and US major Dow Chemical.

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Russia's oil refining capacities make it possible to not only fully satisfy the needs of the domestic petroleum products market, but also to supply the markets of neighboring countries, the Russian Energy Ministry told Interfax.

Following a meeting on the petroleum products market on March 22, the government said that Deputy Prime Minister Novak had instructed oil companies and Russian Railways to ensure uninterrupted exports of petroleum products as well at loading at refineries in accordance with the schedule amid growing spring demand.

Novak said that oil companies must maximize supplies of gasoline and diesel fuel to the domestic market and fully meet its needs, even if it means reducing export supplies, the minutes of the meeting show.

Last week, the Deputy Prime Minister, when asked whether it makes sense to ban the export of diesel fuel, answered in the negative. "No. We produce twice as much diesel fuel than the domestic market consumes, and there is simply nowhere to put it. The situation on the petroleum products market is stable. All the measures put in place by the government are ensuring a stable supply on the domestic market and a stable price situation," he said.

On Tuesday, Novak will hold a new meeting to discuss the oil products market, Interfax sources said.

An Energy Ministry representative said that the utmost attention is paid to the balance of fifth environmental class motor gasoline, the type consumed in the Russian domestic market. "Since the beginning of the year, the accumulated production of motor gasoline is at approximately the same level as it was in the same period in 2023. Moreover, thanks to the preventive measure to ban gasoline exports, shipments to the domestic market are approximately 10% higher than they were in the first quarter of 2023, which allows us to saturate the market and form the necessary fuel reserves before the spring period of increased demand and refinery maintenance," the Ministry said.

Commercial gasoline reserves at refineries and oil depots currently sit at about 2 million tonnes, which is higher than in similar periods in previous years, the Ministry said. Diesel fuel production is significantly higher than the domestic market requires, and shipments to domestic consumers have increased since the beginning of the year by 15% compared to the beginning of 2023.

"Considering the effective operation of economic mechanisms to support the production of petroleum products and their sale on the domestic market, the fuel supply situation is stable," the Energy Ministry said.

Meanwhile, exchange prices for petroleum products swung to growth this week after several days of declines in the prior week. The agency's sources in the fuel market said that growth of prices for oil products on the SPIMEX is related to the start of spring seasonal demand for fuel. Furthermore, market participants express fears that fuel production in the country will be reduced due to the consequences of drone attacks on refineries. In addition, a number of refineries are due to undergo spring scheduled maintenance, which may also affect overall fuel supplies.

Russia has a ban on gasoline exports from March 1 through the end of August.

According to the text of the minutes of the Novak meeting, FAS, Russian Railways and SPIMEX should work on the issue of granting a supplier the right to reject an application for the supply of exchange-traded petroleum products if, according to information from Russian Railways, there are no exports on public or non-public tracks.

In has been recommended that SPIMEX, in coordination with the FAS, send to the Central Bank amendments to the rules of organized trading in the "Oil Products" section to set the rates for excessive idle time of tank cars at 8,000 rubles per day, starting from 11 days of excessive idle time. Now for more than two days of idle time the penalty is 2,000 rubles per day, more than five days - 4,000 rubles per day, more than 10 days - almost 8,000 rubles per day.

We remind, Russia shipped over 35% of its petroleum product exports to countries in the Asia-Pacific region in 2023, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in an op-ed in the Energy Policy publication. Novak said that Russia has redirected "the entire export volume of oil and petroleum products, which dropped following implementation of the sanctions, to new markets."

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Russia shipped over 35% of its petroleum product exports to countries in the Asia-Pacific region in 2023, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in an op-ed in the Energy Policy publication, as per Interfax.

Novak said that Russia has redirected "the entire export volume of oil and petroleum products, which dropped following implementation of the sanctions, to new markets."

"The main buyers of Russian oil last year were countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Over 80% of Russian oil and over 35% of petroleum products were shipped to Asia-Pacific countries in general in 2023," Novak said.

As reported previously, friendly countries accounted for 86% of oil exports in 2023 versus 40% in 2021, and 84% of petroleum product exports against 30%, respectively.

Russia has not disclosed the export volume of petroleum products in 2023. The country's volume of oil refining totaled 275 million tonnes of the 530.6 million tonnes produced. Output of motor gasoline totaled 44 million tonnes and diesel fuel totaled 88 million tonnes. Processing intensity rose from 72% in 2000 to 84% in 2023, Novak said.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated that Russia exported 2.6 million barrels of petroleum products per day in 2023, with barrels converted into tonnes using various ratios depending on the product, a rise of 100,000 bpd versus 2022 and at the level of 2021.

Economic Development Ministry data indicate that Russia exported 144.1 million tonnes of petroleum products in 2021 and 127.4 million tonnes in 2022.

The outlook for socio-economic development forecasts Russia to export 131.3 million tonnes of petroleum products in 2024, 2025, and 2026, respectively, under the baseline scenario, and that the country shipped 128 million tonnes of petroleum products to foreign markets in 2023.

Russia's oil exports declined 3.3% year-on-year to 234.3 million tonnes in 2023.

We remind, Russia's oil refining capacities make it possible to not only fully satisfy the needs of the domestic petroleum products market, but also to supply the markets of neighboring countries.

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Dow Inc. has appointed Brendy Lange, business vice president of industrial solutions, as president of its performance materials and coatings business, one of three operating segments within Dow, said the company.

He succeeds Mauro Gregorio, who will retire from Dow at the end of September after 40 years with the company. Dow said the transition will begin immediately.

Dow’s performance materials and coatings segment, with 2023 sales of USD8.5 billion, consists of two global businesses — coatings & performance monomers and consumer solutions — and includes the company’s operations in acrylics, cellulosics and silicones.

Lange has previously held roles at Dow in corporate development, electronic materials and the DowDuPont integration management office. Prior to joining Dow in 2010, Lange worked as a consultant at Deloitte Consulting in Chicago.

Gregorio has served as president of performance materials and coatings since February 2020. Previous roles include business president of consumer solutions from 2016 to 2020, where he led the integration of Dow Corning into Dow.

We remind, Dow and the Procter & Gamble Company announced a joint development agreement to create a new recycling technology to enable efficient conversion of hard-to-recycle plastic packaging into recycled polyethylene with near-virgin quality and a low greenhouse gas emissions footprint.

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