Mexican firefighters extinguish second fire in one week at Pemex refinery

A fire at a refinery belonging to Mexican state oil producer Pemex has been extinguished, the firm and authorities said on Thursday, noting that no one had been reported injured, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Pemex did not immediately provide information on what had caused the incident at its Minatitlan refinery in eastern Veracruz state, which can process up to 285,000 bpd.

"Firefighting teams from Pemex report that the fire inside the Minatitlan refinery has been extinguished, with no injuries reported so far," Veracruz civil protection said on X.

Pemex said in a statement that the fire had not impacted its staff or the facilities. The firm, when contacted by Reuters, declined to say whether production at the refinery had been affected.

A separate fire broke out at Pemex's Salina Cruz refinery in southwestern Oaxaca state this week, an installation which processes up to 330,000 bpd. Local civil protection reported no loss of life or damages to property.

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Russian refinery oil processing volumes in November are up by 6% versus October to 22.1 MM tonnes (5.4 MMbpd), calculations based on data from industry sources show, Hydrocarbonprocessing.

They said refining volumes have been gradually increased this month as maintenance work wraps up. Still, they are down 2% from November 2023.

According to calculations, Russia's total oil refinery runs for January–November amounted to 243.4 MM tonnes, down 3.2% from the same period in 2023.

Some Russian refineries had to halt processing or cut runs due to heavy losses amid export curbs, rising crude prices and high borrowing costs, industry sources said.

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The Russian government is lifting the ban on gasoline exports for oil product producers, but extending it for another month for other suppliers, as per Interfax.

"The temporary ban on gasoline exports imposed to the end of 2024 has been extended until January 31, 2025. The restriction will not apply to shipments made by the actual producers of oil products. The relevant resolution of the Russian government has been signed," the Cabinet's press service reported.

This decision was made to maintain stability on the domestic fuel market, support the economics of oil refining and prevent grey exports of gasoline, the release said.

Russia banned exports of all types of gasoline as of September 1, 2024, with the exception of exports to Eurasian Economic Union countries under intergovernmental agreement and only for producers who refined over 1 million tonnes of crude in 2022. The ban was set to expire on December 31, but in early November Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said there was a proposal to lift it early. "I've ordered the Energy Ministry to explore this issue and make the necessary recommendation," Novak said, adding that this only referred to Ai-92 gasoline.

Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev said later that his ministry had submitted a proposal to the government to lift the ban on gasoline exports. Sources told Interfax that it recommended lifting the ban only for producers, but for all types of gasoline. It also recommended extending the ban for the whole winter for all exporters who are not producers.

However, associations representing fuel retailers, traders and brokers, including the Russian Fuel Union, Association of Commodity Market Participants and Association of Commodity Brokers, asked Novak to put off making a decision on lifting the export ban until the domestic market is fully saturated and exchange sales of fuel are increased to an amount that would bring exchange price indicators in line with inflation.

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The Aurus Russian luxury automaker has postponed the launch of production at the former Toyota plant in St. Petersburg, as per Interfax.

"There is a month left until the New Year. It is highly likely that the plant will not be launched this year," Alexei Yakovlev, deputy head of the St. Petersburg Committee on Industrial Policy, Innovation and Trade, said on Wednesday at the Russian Industrialist forum without specifying a new launch date.

As previously reported, citing Kirill Soloveichik, then chairman of the city committee on industrial policy, innovation and trade, car manufacturing could begin at the site in 2024.

Alexander Beglov, St. Petersburg Governor, and Andrei Pankov, CEO of the Aurus project legal entity, Aurus LLC, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) 2024 signed an agreement on cooperating to establish automobile production as part of developing a premium mechanical engineering cluster.

In February, the media, citing the then head of the of Industry and Trade Minister and current First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, reported on the transfer of the former Toyota plant in St. Petersburg to the manufacturer of Aurus automobiles. The St. Petersburg automobile plant in Shushary, which was previously owned by Toyota, is owned through Shushary-Auto LLC by the Federal State Unitary after the departure of the Japanese firm Enterprise NAMI, subordinate to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The Federal State Unitary Enterprise is also the main owner of Aurus (63.5%), whose other co-owners are the Arab fund Tawazun (36%) and Hit Motors Rus LLC (0.5%).

Manturov said that the company would implement the production project at the former Toyota plant "together with industrial foreign partners."
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Norway's Equinor has completed the sale of its equity stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field development project and its shares in the BTC Co pipeline company, which operates the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, to the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and India's ONGC Videsh Limited, a subsidiary of ONGC, as per Interfax.

The transaction under the sale and purchase agreement was closed on November 29, 2024. The total consideration for the transaction was USD720 million, Equinor said in a press release.

The development of ACG has been underway since September 20, 1994. The contract will end in December 2049 and concerns the extraction of about 1 billion tons of oil.

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