Shell sees significant oil discovery in Albania

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shell Upstream Albania B.V. said initial tests showed “a flow potential of several thousand barrels of oil per day” from its Shpirag 4 well in central Albania, and it needed more work to determine its commercial volume, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"We are pleased that these initial tests have confirmed the potential of this discovery and look forward to growing our business in Albania," Marc Gerrits, Shell’s Executive Vice-President of Exploration, said.

The Shpirag 4 well west of Berat had confirmed the flow potential of significant light oil discovery, it added.

More appraisal work was needed to assess commercial volumes in Shpirag, in an equivalent geological setting to the large Val D’Agri and Tempa Rossa fields in Italy, Shell Albania said.

It plans to go ahead with extended production tests on the Shpirag 4 well and more drills to appraise the Shpirag 3 well, while exploring others to test their potential.

As MRC wrote previously, in May 2018. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Shell Nanhai B.V. (Shell) announced the official start-up of the second ethylene cracker at their Nanhai petrochemicals complex in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is incorporated in England and Wales, has its headquarters in The Hague and is listed on the London, Amsterdam, and New York stock exchanges. Shell companies have operations in more than 70 countries and territories with businesses including oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The refinery operated by MOL’s unit Slovnaft in the Slovak capital Bratislava started receiving clean oil through the Druzhba pipeline at noon on Thursday, it said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

“Crude oil in quality which is required by its technical standards started flowing to the Bratislava refinery at noon,” a Slovnaft spokesman said in an email.

Flows through the Druzhba pipeline were suspended last month due to contaminated crude in the system.

As MRC informed earlier, McDermott International, Inc. announced that it has been awarded a sizeable* technology contract by MOL Petrochemicals for the basic engineering, technology license, catalyst and Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for an Olefins Conversion Technology (OCT) unit at MOL’s petrochemicals complex in Tiszaujvaros.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia’s largest lender Sberbank is in talks with potential investors to sell Russia’s Antipinsky oil refinery, reported Reuters with reference to CEO German Gref.

The lender has also sold the debt-ridden Afipsky refinery to Russian billionaire Mikhail Gutseriyev, Gref said.

As MRC informed before, The Antipinsky oil refinery, which has a capacity of 9 million tonnes per year, said last Monday it had filed for bankruptcy, weeks after a London court ordered its assets be frozen in response to a lawsuit from a trading house.

Russia’s Antipinsky oil refinery does not plan to receive oil this month and has removed itself from the delivery schedule. A London court has issued a worldwide order to freeze 225 million euros (USD252 million) in assets belonging to the oil refinery, owned by New Stream Group.

JSC Antipinsky Refinery was founded in July 2004 on the territory of one of the major oil and gas producing constituents of the Russian Federation - Tyumen Region, where most of Russian oil (64%) and natural gas (91%) reserves are concentrated.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp is looking to keep its June throughput at its Mailiao refinery at more than 90% of capacity, similar to May despite weaker refining margins, its spokesperson said, as per Reuters.

Formosa operates a 540,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) refinery in Mailiao, one of Asia’s larger refineries in terms of capacity. “We have already sold our gasoline and diesel for June. We also have crude intake commitments,” said KY Lin on why it was not workable to cut runs next month.

“If the market remains as weak as it is now in July, we will consider a small cut in refinery runs,” Lin said. Cuts, if any, would likely be small at between 5 and 10 percentage points, as the company still has to meet contractual obligations to buy crude and sell oil products, he said.

Some refineries in South Korea, Singapore and Thailand were planning to trim throughput from June as spring refining margins were at a 16-year low, with naphtha being the worse performing oil product.

Formosa also operates three naphtha crackers with a total annual ethylene capacity of 2.93 million tonnes, all of which are operating at full-tilt, according to Lin.

As MRC informed earlier, on 19 March, 2018, Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC) undertook an emergency shutdown at its No. 1 cracker in Mailiao owing to technical issues. The plant remained off-line for around one day. Located at Mailiao in Taiwan, the No. 1 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 700,000 mt/year, propylene production capacity of 350,000 mt/year and butadiene production capacity of 109,000 mt/year.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company"s plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
MRC

MOSCW (MRC) -- U.S. crude oil inventories rose unexpectedly last week, hitting their highest levels since July 2017, due to weak refinery output, particularly in the Midwest, the Energy Information Administration said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Crude inventories rose 4.7 million barrels in the week ended May 17, compared with analysts’ expectations for a decrease of 599,000 barrels. That boosted overall crude inventories, not including the U.S. government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, to 476.8 million barrels, their highest since July 2017.

Some of the increase in inventories came as a result of sales out of the SPR, which this week dropped 1.1 million barrels, the fourth consecutive week of sales.

Analysts attributed the inventory build to more sluggish refinery runs than normal for this time of year. In particular, refining usage in the Midwest fell to its lowest levels in May since 2013.

"Refinery utilization just can’t get it together,” said Bob Yawger, director of futures at Mizuho in New York. “It’s at the extreme end of the range of possibilities for a bearish report. It’s about as bad as it could have been considering the fact that driving season is so close."

Refinery utilization rates have dropped since January for seasonal maintenance but have barely managed to break above 90% of total capacity, even ahead of the peak gasoline demand season in summer. Last week, refinery crude runs fell by 98,000 barrels per day and rates fell 0.6 percentage point to 89.9% of total capacity. Rates in the Midwest fell to 82.7% of capacity, their lowest for the month of May since 2013.

As a result, Midwest crude inventories rose last week to 142.4 million barrels, their highest since November 2017, while gasoline stocks in the region fell to 47.4 million barrels, the lowest weekly levels for the month of May since 2014, EIA data showed.

Last week, BP Plc’s Whiting, Indiana refinery was forced to shut two units amid an overall of its crude distillation unit; it returned to normal at the beginning of this week.

In addition, flooding in the Farm Belt has cut planting of crops, which reduces the demand for diesel.

As MRC informed earlier, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories have been rising in recent weeks, which some observers have interpreted as evidence the global oil market is adequately supplied and blame for a sudden decline in oil prices.
MRC