MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco will supply agreed grades and volumes to India’s Reliance Industries in October after the world’s top oil exporter had to provide alternate heavier grader due to drone attacks on its oil installations, reported Hellenic Shipping News with reference to a spokesperson at the Indian company.
The Sept. 14 drone and missile attacks on two giant facilities that process mainly light crude knocked down about 5.7 million barrels per day, more than half of the production of the world’s top oil exporter, forcing the Kingdom to supply heavier grade instead of light oil to some refiners.
"Aramco (has) confirmed and reassured that supplies for October will be maintained both in terms of quantity and mix of grades as per our requirement," said the spokesperson.
Aramco has been a major and reliable supplier of crude oil for Reliance for more than twenty years, both in terms of volume of crude supply as well as the mix of various grades of crude oil, the spokesperson added.
"In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Aramco maintained supply with alternate grades of crude oil. The alternate grades being heavier suited Reliance’s refining needs," the spokesperson said.
Reliance, owners of the world’s biggest refining complex at Jamnagar in western Gujarat state, is a major buyer of Saudi oil and recently announced plans to sell a fifth of its petrochemical and refining business to Aramco in a multibillion dollar deal.
As MRC reported before, a number of Saudi Arabia's companies, such as Tasnee, Sadara, Advanced Petrochemical and Saudi Kayan, announced a curtailment of feedstock to their petrochemical plants, including polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) facilities, by an average of 30-50% due to the attacks on key Saudi Aramco facilities on Saturday.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
Saudi Aramco is an integrated oil and chemicals company, a global leader in hydrocarbon production, refining processes and distribution, as well as one of the largest global oil exporters. It manages proven reserves of crude oil and condensate estimated at 261.1bn barrels, and produces 9.54 million bbl daily. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the company employs over 61,000 staff in 77 countries.
Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. Thus, the company produces among others polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride.
MRC