Iran set to invest in south Indian refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iran is ready to invest in the expansion of a South Indian refinery, an Iranian official said in New Delhi, as the country seeks new avenues of growth amid debilitating U.S. sanctions, said Reuters.

Iran has seen a massive drop in export earnings which is eating into funds for social development. This has raised questions that it might not invest in the expansion of a refinery in South India where it already holds a minority stake.

Iran’s participation has also been questioned after India cut back its Iranian crude oil imports following U.S. sanctions and stopped them completely from May.

“We have announced our readiness for that (to invest in the refinery),” said Ali Chegeni, ambassador of Iran in India. “We have no limit to work with India whether an investment, whether any kind of joint venture, we are ready for that.”

India was Iran’s top oil client after China, but halted imports after Washington withdrew exemptions in May to eight nations, including India, who were earlier allowed to import some Iranian oil. Naftiran Intertrade, the Swiss subsidiary of National Iranian Oil Company, holds a 15.4% stake in Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd, a subsidiary of India’s biggest state-owned refiner Indian Oil Corp Ltd.

Indian Oil has about 52 percent share in the refinery. Chennai Petroleum plans to invest up to 356.98 billion rupees (USD5.1 billion) to replace the 20,000 bpd Nagapattinam refinery in Southern Tamil Nadu state with a 180,000 bpd plant.

Chegeni said he hoped that Bank Pasargad, a major Iranian bank which offers commercial and retail services, will soon open a branch in India and will directory deal with India’s UCO Bank and IDBI Bank Ltd that were handling India’s oil payments in rupees to Tehran.

India was paying for oil imports in rupees before suspending its purchases.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shenhua Ningxia Сoal Industry (SNCG), a subsidiary of Shenhua Group, one of the largest petrochemical producers in China, has restarted its (coal-to-propylene) No. 3 polypropylene (PP) unit, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has resumed operations at the unit on July 14, 2019 following a maintenance turnaround. The unit was shut on June 25, 2019.

Located at Ningxia province of China, the No. 3 PP unit has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, SNCG brought on-stream its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant on January 19, 2019, following an unplanned outage. The unit remained off-line for around one week owing to technical issues.Located at Ningxia province of China, the plant has a production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.

Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group Co., Ltd. engages in coal mining and washing, coal deep processing, coal chemical industry, electric power, real estate, and other businesses.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US oil companies began restoring some of the more than nearly 74% production shut at US Gulf of Mexico platforms ahead of Hurricane Barry, reported Reuters with reference to the US offshore drilling regulator's statement.

There was 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil production off line in the US-regulated areas of the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, about 80,000 barrels less than on Sunday, according to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).

Workers also were returning to the more than 280 production platforms evacuated. It can take several days for full production to be resumed after a storm leaves the Gulf of Mexico.

Anadarko Petroleum, BHP Group and Chevron on Monday said they had begun returning staff to evacuated platforms and were in the process of restoring operations.

Barry went ashore in central Louisiana as a category one hurricane with at least 74 miles per hour (119 km per hour) on Saturday after emerging into the Gulf from Florida earlier in the week. On Monday, it was a tropical depression and dropping up to four inches (10 cm) of rain on Arkansas on Monday.

In its wake, offshore natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico was down 61%, or 1.7 billion cubic feet per day (cfd), on Monday, BSEE said.

The amount of gas flowing to Cheniere Energy Inc's Sabine Pass liquified natural gas (LNG) export facility in Louisiana, rose to a one-week high of 3.7 billion cfd.

Last week, the amount of gas flowing to Sabine fell to a 13-week low of 2.9 billion cfd on Thursday, according to Refinitiv.

Most refineries in southeast Louisiana kept running through the storm except for Phillips 66's 253,600 bpd Alliance, Louisiana, refinery, which the company began restarting on Monday.

The Alliance refinery was shut on Friday due to the threat of flooding and a mandatory evacuation order in Plaquemines Parish, where the refinery is located along the Mississippi River.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- W. R. Grace & Co., the leading independent supplier of polyolefin catalyst technology and polypropylene (PP) process technology, has licensed its UNIPOL PP Process Technology to Nayara Energy, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Located at the Vadinar Refinery in Gujarat, India, the new, world-scale capacity UNIPOL PP facility will utilize 450 KTA of propylene feedstock. Nayara Energy intends to produce phthalate-free homopolymer products for the Indian market using the most advanced PP process and catalysts technology available.

Grace's all gas-phase UNIPOL PP Process Technology provides the broadest range of PP homopolymers, random copolymers, and impact copolymers in the industry. This process technology, without any moving parts inside of the reactor and requiring less equipment than any alternative, is a reliable, safe, and stable operation that leads to lower capital, operating, and maintenance costs.

Sergey Denisov, Nayara Energy’s Chief Development Officer said, “Investing in the UNIPOL® PP process technology gives us the ability to make a broad range of phthalate-free products for our customers. As the demand for these advanced PP products increases in the region, Nayara Energy wants to ensure that it is using the most up-to-date, reliable, and cost-effective technology to meet our customer’s needs."

Laura Schwinn, President, Grace’s Specialty Catalysts business, said, “Grace is excited to partner with Nayara Energy. We are confident that the wide range of homo-, random-, and impact copolymer products, combined with our non-phthalate CONSISTA® catalysts, will give Nayara Energy the edge it is seeking in the polypropylene resin marketplace."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexico will reduce the tax burden of heavily indebted Pemex by some USD7 billion over the next two years and inject government capital to build a new refinery and raise output from onshore and shallow water fields, the company said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Presenting the outline of a business plan watched closely by investors, Pemex Chief Executive Octavio Romero said an onerous profit-sharing tax that hands much of the company’s income to the federal government made the company financially unsound.

He reiterated that the tax will be reduced 11 percentage points to 54% by 2021. The company has previously said that reduction would save the company USD7.1 billion in 2020 and 2021.

With few new details, the outline of the plan failed to excite markets, and Mexico’s peso weakened slightly against the dollar during the presentation. Pemex is the world’s most indebted company, and its credit was downgraded to junk by Fitch this year. Moody’s and S&P have the company, Mexico’s biggest, on negative outwatch.

High on ratings agencies’ list of concerns is the government’s plan to build a new USD8 billion refinery at Dos Bocas. Former Finance Minister Carlos Urzua cited his opposition to the refinery after he resigned last week, saying experts believed it would cost far more.

A more detailed, 200-page version of the plan would be unveiled later on Tuesday, Romero said. Focusing on easy to access on shore and shallow water fields, Romero vowed to raise Pemex production within three years, and to reach 2.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil by the end of the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in 2024, from a current 1.8 million barrels a day.

Sticking to the government’s position since it took office in December, Romero said it made more sense to invest in these fields to rapidly increase output, rather than the deepwater area of the Gulf of Mexico which the last government wanted to tap.
MRC