KazMunayGas, Uzbekneftegaz sign agreement to cooperate in geological exploration, petrochemical industry

KazMunayGas (KMG) and Uzbekneftegaz have signed a cooperation agreement, KMG said in a statement on Saturday, as per Interfax.

"The agreement determines the two companies' future cooperation in geological exploration and implementing joint petrochemical projects in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan," the statement said.

The document was signed in Almaty as part of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's work visit and meeting with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

"Uzbekneftegaz is one of our promising partners. The current agreement proves KMG is ready to expand cooperation with Uzbek counterparts in such crucial areas as replenishing the resource base and developing the petrochemical industry. Also in the sphere of our mutual interest are digital technologies, occupational safety and environmental protection," KMG CEO Askhat Khasenov was quoted in the statement as saying.

Currently, KMG is implementing several projects in the petrochemical industry, including the KPI propylene complex, the Silleno polyethylene complex, the Urea project, and others. Uzbekneftegaz previously concluded similar agreements with Azerbaijan's Socar and Russia's Tatneft.

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Russia and China are planning to adopt an action plan in collaborative filmmaking and approve specific ideas for co-produced films, Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova said, as per Interfax.

"Our goal is to approve specific ideas for co-produced films, which would not only attract a large audience in Russia and China, but will also have high artistic qualities. With administrative support of local agencies, we must approach the production of new films and the increase in commercial and state exchanges," the Russian Culture Ministry's press service quoted Lyubimova as saying following a meeting with deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party and President of the China Media Group Shen Haixiong in Beijing.

Shen, in turn, noted that movie exchange between the two countries must increase considerably. "We highly value the recent open dialogue between the movie business leaders of the two countries and are ready to support the proposals Russia has made," he said.

The Russian and Chinese representatives also agreed to sign a bilateral action plan on film co-production as part of the upcoming return visit of Chinese partners to Moscow.

In addition, the parties discussed holding the exchange war film festivals in Russian in May 2025 and in China in September.

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Major Japanese companies will launch a joint demonstration project to produce propylene from process by-product gases. The project, which involves JFE Steel, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical and Mitsubishi Chemical, is scheduled to be completed in Japanese fiscal year 2026 (until March 2027), as per Fibre&Fashion.

The participants’ plan is based on the use of CO2-rich by-product gas generated during steel production. JFE Steel will supply it to Mitsubishi Gas Chemical for further use as feedstock for methanol production at a newly built plant in the Mizushima complex (Japan).

Mitsubishi Chemical will provide final evaluation of the methanol obtained, as well as determine its suitability for propylene production using DTP technology. DTP uses a special catalyst that enables the production of propylene with high yield and low energy consumption.

The long-term vision of the initiative is reportedly beyond the demonstration project. By capturing and reusing CO2 from waste gases, the partners are creating a model for carbon co-recycling, facilitating deeper collaboration between the steel and chemical industries.

As previously reported, in La Robla (Leon province, Spain), the Spanish company Reolum will build a green methanol plant with a capacity of 140,000 tons per year. The plant will produce green methanol from biomass using renewable hydrogen.

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Russia is increasing exports of motor fuels to Bolivia, according to data from LSEG vessel tracking and industry sources, as an energy crisis worsens in the Latin American country and Moscow needs to expand sales hit by Western sanctions, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

According to the shipping data, at least four tankers were loaded between December and March at the Russian ports of Vysotsk, Primorsk and Taman, including some 190,000 tonnes (t) of diesel, signaling a Chilean port as the point of discharge.

The cargoes are destined for landlocked Bolivia, which relies on other countries' ports for its seaborne imports, market sources said.

Bolivia's state-owned energy firm YPFB, which controls energy imports and exports, said on Thursday the company expected to receive a total of five diesel and gasoline cargoes by April 4, including three imported from Houston, Texas (U.S.), but did not elaborate on the countries of origin of the other two.

Last year, Russia sent Bolivia around 105,000 t of low-sulfur diesel, according to the shipping data, to help to tackle a fuel shortage.

Bolivia has been heavily dependent on foreign fuel supplies as local production only accounts for around 15% of diesel demand, and 30% for gasoline.

In Bolivia's farm region of Santa Cruz, a worsening fuel shortage is starting to hit farmers' ability to harvest their crops, a concern for the embattled South American country where agriculture has become a key economic driver.

In March, Bolivia's energy ministry announced a set of incentives to import gasoline and diesel, in a bid to promote the country's private market and overcome an extended fuel shortage.

Authorized periods for fuel imports and marketing activities will be extended from one year to three years, while tariff duty on imported gasoline will be cut to zero, the statement added.

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China dipped slightly into crude stockpiles in the first two months of the year as refiners processed more oil and imports remained weak, as per Hydrocrbonprocessing.

It was the first time in 18 months that refinery throughput exceeded the amount of crude available from imports and domestic production. Refiners processed about 30,000 bpd more in the January–February period than the total of crude available, according to calculations based on official data.

China does not disclose the volumes of crude flowing into or out of strategic and commercial stockpiles, but an estimate can be made by deducting the amount of oil processed from the total of crude available from imports and domestic output.

Refiners processed the equivalent of 14.74 MMbpd in the first two months of the year, up 2.1% from the same period a year earlier, according to data released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics.

China combines import data for January and February to smooth out the impact of the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, the timing for which changes each year.

China, the world's biggest crude importer, saw arrivals of 10.37 MMbpd in the first two months of the year, and domestic production of 4.34 MMbpd.

The combined total of 14.71 MMbpd was 30,000 bpd below the volume processed, the first time since September 2023 that processing exceeded available crude.

Given that it's a relatively rare occurrence for refiners to process more crude than the total of imports and domestic output, it's worth asking why this was the case for the first two months of 2025.

The main reason is that crude imports were weak in the first two months, dropping 5% from the same period in 2024.

There were likely two main factors behind the decline in imports, the first being that refiners cut back on cargoes from Russia after outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden imposed new sanctions in mid-January on tankers carrying Russian crude.

But it's also worth noting that refiners didn't appear to make much effort to replace Russian oil with cargoes from other suppliers, and the most likely reason for that was the strength of global crude prices in January and February.

Benchmark Brent futures reached their highest point so far this year of $82.63 a barrel on Jan. 15, having risen steadily from levels around $70 at the start of December.

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