Parts of Norwegian Mongstad oil refinery up and running

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Equinor's oil and cogeneration plants at Norway's Mongstad refinery are up and running, with more parts of the facility expected to restart during Thursday, reported Reuters with reference to the firm's statement.

"The crude oil plant and cogeneration plant (are) up and running. We expect more parts of (the) Mongstad refinery to be re-started today as work is currently ongoing to prepare for start-up," said Equinor spokeswoman Elin Isaksen.

An unexpected outage at Mongstad occurred on Wednesday during routine maintenance on the site's power supply, triggering an evacuation of most workers.

All workers who had been evacuated were now back at work, added Isaksen, declining to give an estimate on current output.

Equinor's largest refinery, on the western coast of Norway, was built in 1975 and has a crude oil and condensate distillation capacity of 226,000 barrels per day, according to the company. Last October Mongstad sustained an unexpected outage that lasted two weeks when a naphtha leak shut down the plant.

As MRC wrote previously, in April 2018, Wood has won new contract to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) for Statoil’s Mongstad refinery near Bergen, Norway.
MRC

Indian Oil posts 50% jump in Q1 net at Rs 70.9 bn; income up at Rs 1.52 trn

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) reported 50.27 per cent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 70.92 billion for the first quarter of the current financial year, as per Business-standard.

The country's largest fuel retailer had posted net profit of Rs 47 billion in the same quarter of last financial year.

IOC said in a regulatory filing that its net income increased to Rs 1.52 trillion during April-June quarter of the 2018-19, from Rs 1.32 trillion in the year-ago period.

Expenses remained higher at Rs 1.42 trillion as against Rs 1.25 trillion in the said period.

As per MRC, Indian Oil to invest Rs7,812 crore for expansion IOC to invest Rs.1,843 crore in upgrading Koyali refinery in Gujarat to produce Euro-IV complaint fuel, Rs.1,327 crore to be spent on Barauni refinery in Bihar.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
MRC

BPA plant shuts by Sinopec Mitsui

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Mitsui Chemicals Co has undertaken a planned shutdown at its Bisphenol A (BPA) plant, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source informed that the company has started maintenance at the plant on August 16, 2018. The plant is expected to remain shut until mid-September 2018.

Located in Shanghai, China the plant has a production capacity of 120.000 mt/year.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, in March 2016, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and Hankuk Carbon Co., a company listed on the Korea Exchange, entered into a strategic alliance agreement to engage in collaborative business activities relating to the processing of composite materials.

Shanghai Sinopec Mitsui Chemicals Co. Ltd. manufactures and distributes chemical products. The сompany produces and sells bisphenol A and other related chemical products.
MRC

Reliance cancels VGO cargo buy from Nayara on FCC shutdown

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India’s Reliance Industries, operator of the world’s biggest refining complex, has canceled lifting of vacuum gas oil (VGO) cargo from local refiner Nayara Energy due to the shutdown of its gasoline-making unit, reported Reuters with reference to three sources.

Reliance announced that it has shut a gasoline-producing fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) unit in its export-oriented 704 Mbpd refinery. The unit is expected to restart within two weeks, it said.sp

Reliance was to lift 40,000 tonnes of VGO, a feedstock for FCC, from Nayara’s refinery in Vadinar later this month, the sources said.

Reuters on Wednesday reported that Reliance has declared force majeure on gasoline exports from its Jamnager refinery in western India.

A U.S based trade source said Reliance has declared force majeure on 4 gasoline cargoes bound to the United States due to shutdown of the FCC.

Reliance’s two refineries at Jamnagar have the capability to process about 1.5 MMbpd oil.

Reliance and Nayara Energy did not respond to a Reuters email seeking comments.

Asia’s gasoline crack fell on Thursday but remained close to its highest level this year due to supply disruptions after Reliance Industries declared force majeure on gasoline supplies the previous day.

As MRC informed before, RIL shut down its cracker, polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) plants in Hazira on 23 March, 2017 for a 25-day turnaround. Located at Hazira near Surat in Gujarat, the cracker has a production capacity of 1.1 mmt/year and the downstream PP plant has a production capacity of 600,000 mt/year. The PE plant has a capacity of 450,000 mt/year.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. Thus, the company produces among others polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride.
MRC

RIL jumps 53 places in Fortune 500 list; IOC highest ranked Indian firm

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Seven Indian companies have made it to the latest Fortune 500 list of the world's biggest corporations in terms of revenue, with state-owned IOC continuing to be the highest ranked Indian firm and Reliance Industries (RIL) jumping 53 places, as per Business-standard.

In the list topped by retail giant Walmart, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) with 23 per cent rise in revenues at $65.9 billion was ranked 137th, up from the 168th position in 2017, Fortune said.

Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani-led RIL was the top private sector company from the country as it jumped from 203rd rank last year to 148th. It had a revenue of USD62.3 billion in 2017-18.

With USD47.5 billion revenue, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) made a come back into the list with a ranking of 197th. It did not feature in the 2017 ranking.

State Bank of India (SBI) with USD47.5 billion revenue was given 216th rank, a shade higher than 217th last year.

Tata Motors improved its ranking from 247th last year to 232nd. So did state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) that moved up to 314th position from 360th last year.

Rajesh Exports was the seventh Indian firm on the list though its ranking slipped to 405th this year from 295th last year.

RIL was the most profitable Indian firm on the list. On the globally most profitable list, it secured the 99th position. The list was topped by Apple.

Two Chinese firms - Sinopec Group and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) - figure in the top 10, occupying 3rd and 4th positions, respectively. State Grid was ranked 2nd while Royal Dutch Shell got 5th position.

"The world's 500 largest companies generated USD30 trillion in revenues and $1.9 trillion in profits in 2017. Together, this year's Fortune Global 500 companies employ 67.7 million people worldwide and are represented by 33 countries," Fortune said.

As MRC informed before, in February 2016, RIL was awarded a contract worth Rs. 100 crore to Petron Engineering Construction Ltd for its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant in Gujarat. The LLDPE plant is part of RIL's J-3 project in Jamnagar in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The J-3 project boasts of a petroleum refinery and allied petrochemical plants for the production of plastics and fibre intermediates.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. Thus, the company produces among others polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride.
MRC