MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia's Aramco trading has won a term tender to buy around 550,000 tonnes of naphtha throughout 2020 from Greek refiner Motor Oil Hellas, three trading sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
Under the terms of the tender, Aramco would lift a 60,000 tonne cargo of naphtha roughly every month and a half, one of the traders said.
As MRC wrote before, the initial public offering of Saudi Aramco - the company that is preparing to sell up to a 5% stake - will happen soon, reported the country's energy minister's statement on Wednesday. The Aramco IPO is "going to come soon. It will come at the right time with the right approach and definitely with the right decision, and it will be a Saudi decision, specifically by (Crown) Prince Mohammed," Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told delegates attending the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh. He didn't provide further details.
Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV channel reported on Tuesday that the local listing of Aramco will take place on December 11, with a final flotation price set to be announced on December 4.
We also remind that Saudi Aramco, which temporarily lost half of its oil production following the September 14 attacks on two key oil facilities, is running its local refineries at full capacity and is forging ahead with plans to start up new refineries. The company is also starting up a joint venture refinery in Malaysia next year. According to Aramco's bond prospectus released in April, the refining and petrochemical joint venture with Petronas - the Malaysian national oil company - collectively known as PRefChem, was supposed to start this year.
The PRefChem joint venture includes a 300,000 b/d refinery, an integrated steam cracker with capacity to produce 1.3 million mt of ethylene located in Johor, Malaysia. Aramco was supposed to provide a significant portion of PRefChem's crude supply under a long-term supply agreement. Jazan and PrefChem will help Aramco reach a gross refining capacity of 5.6 million b/d, it said in the prospectus. The company currently owns and has stakes in four refineries abroad with a total refining capacity exceeding 2 million b/d.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,436,390 tonnes in the first eight months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the PP consumption in the Russian market was 909,260 tonnes in January-August 2019, up by 10% 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.
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