Aruba asks US to lift sanctions affecting refinery financing

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Aruba is asking the United States to lift financial sanctions blocking a Citgo Petroleum Corp oil refinery from financing an overhaul project, which has led to job cuts on the Caribbean island, reported Reuters with reference the nation’s prime minister.

Prime Minister Evelyn Wever-Croes said at a media briefing that the United States initially ruled out a relaxation of sanctions, which this month led to a halt on a USD685 million renovation project that was started in 2016.

The island government is expecting a final answer this week on its request to allow between USD15 million and USD20 million be invested in the project, Wever-Croes said, adding that the money would allow for the recall of the workers.

Citgo, as a unit Venezuela’s state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, is subject to financial sanctions imposed by the United States on the country’s government and PDVSA, designed to oust Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolas Maduro.

Citgo Aruba Refining signed a 15-year lease with the government of Aruba, agreeing to refurbish and reopen an idled 209,000-barrel-per-day refinery. That work was halted earlier in February and employees laid off because of the US sanctions.

A Citgo Petroleum spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A first round of sanctions on Venezuela and PDVSA in 2017 had caused delays to the project.

As MRC informed before, in late January 2019, Citgo Petroleum Corp idled the small gasoline-producing unit at its 157,500-barrel-per-day (bpd) Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery for economic reasons. The 13,000-bpd FCCU 1 was shut for "non-operational reasons" the company said in a notice filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The sources said FCCU 1 was not profitable for the refinery to operate.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire broke out at a small oil refinery in the Russian region of Irkutsk on Sunday, but was put out within quarter of an hour, reported Reuters with reference to the local Emergency Ministry.

The fire at the refinery in the Siberian city of Angarsk broke out at 1544 local time (0744 GMT) and was extinguished by 1558 (0758 GMT).

There was an oil spill covering an area of 50 square metres which led to a fire at the facility’s primary crude refining unit, the ministry said.

The refinery was not owned by Russian oil giant Rosneft and was a separate, small facility, a local official said.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft, which owns downstream assets in Germany including stakes in a number of oil refineries, plans to invest around EUR600 million (USD690 million) in the German downstream market.
MRC

MOSCOW (NRC) -- KBR, Inc. announced it has been awarded a reimbursable contract by ExxonMobil to provide detailed engineering, procurement, and construction services for the offsites and interconnecting units as part of the recently announced crude expansion project in Beaumont, Texas, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"KBR is proud to continue our relationship with ExxonMobil through our partnership on this project," said Farhan Mujib, KBR President, Hydrocarbons - Delivery Solutions. "This project showcases KBR's long history of executing projects on the U.S. Gulf Coast and our ability to deliver projects in operating facilities safely and efficiently."

KBR has successfully executed some of the world's largest, most technically complex projects. Backed by a 100-year legacy of engineering innovation, hands-on knowledge and technical expertise, we create solutions to customers' challenges that deliver the impossible on a daily basis.

As MRC reported before, in October 2017, ExxonMobil Chemical Company commenced production on the first of two new 650,000 tons-per-year high-performance polyethylene (PE) lines at its plastics plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The full project, part of the company’s multi-billion dollar expansion project in the Baytown area and ExxonMobil’s broader Growing the Gulf expansion initiative, will increase the plant’s polyethylene capacity by approximately 1.3 million tons per year.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell, one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world, has announced that it has declared a dividend of USD1.00 per share, as per the company's press rerease.

The devidend to be paid March 11, 2019 to shareholders of record March 4, 2019, with an ex-dividend date of March 1, 2019.

As MRC wrote previously, in August 2016, LyondellBasell made the final investment decision to build a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant on the US Gulf Coast. The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.1 billion pounds (500,000 metric tons) and will be the first commercial plant to employ LyondellBasell's new proprietary Hyperzone PE technology. The start-up of the new plant is scheduled for 2019.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Opposition from farmers has prompted India’s western state of Maharashtra to move the location for what would be the country’s biggest oil refinery, reported Reuters with reference to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

State-run oil companies and Saudi Aramco have teamed up to build the USD44 billion refinery, which is aimed at giving India steady fuel supplies while meeting Saudi Arabia’s need to secure regular buyers for its oil.

But thousands of farmers are refusing to surrender land, fearing it could damage a region famed for its Alphonso mangoes, vast cashew plantations and fishing hamlets that boast bountiful catches of seafood.

After their protests, land acquisition has been stopped for the refinery at the proposed site at Nanar, a village in Ratnagiri district, some 400 km (250 miles) south of Mumbai, Fadnavis said on Monday.

The refinery will be built at a place where local population won’t oppose the project, he said in a press conference, without identifying a new location.

Fadnavis, a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), made the announcement after forging an alliance with regional party Shiv Sena for the upcoming general election.

The location of refinery was one of the contentious issues between the parties, with Shiv Sena opposing the refinery.

The announcement comes as Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is due to arrive in India on Tuesday and is expected to announce investments in energy and infrastructure during the visit.

The Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (RRPCL), which is running the project, says the 1.2 million barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery, and an integrated petrochemical site with a capacity of 18 million tonnes per year, will help create direct and indirect employment for up to 150,000 people, with jobs that pay better than agriculture or fishing.

RRPCL, a joint venture between Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum, has said suggestions the refinery would damage the environment were baseless.

"The company is hopeful that the state government will provide sufficient land for the project on the western coast," Anil Nagwekar, a spokesman for the RRPCL, told Reuters.

Land acquisition has always been a contentious issue in rural India, where a majority of the population depends on farming for its livelihood.

In 2008, for example, India’s Tata Motors had to shelve plans for a car factory in an eastern state after facing widespread protests from farmers.

As MRC informed previously, Indian Oil Corp, the country’s top refiner, shut half of its 300,000 barrels per day Panipat refinery in northern Haryana state for about a month from mid-February for maintenance.
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