Indian Oil looks to import Russian oil

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian Oil Corp, the country’s top refiner, is considering importing Russian oil, its chairman Sanjiv Singh said, as the company aims to diversify its oil import sources, reported Reuters.

India, the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer, ships in about 60% of its overall crude needs from the middle eastern countries. The nation is gradually tapping new sources to hedge itself against geopolitical risks.

Indian state refiners - IOC, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd , Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd - hardly buy Russian oil as high transportation costs make the crude costly compared to the grades in Middle East.

"We are exploring all options, we are discussing," Singh said, when asked if his company would sign a term contract with Russian companies.

As MRC wrote previously, Indian Oil Corp conducted turnaround at its naphtha cracker in India from early September 2019 to early October 2019. Located in Panipat, in the northern Indian state of Haryana, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 857,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 425,000 mt/year.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant’s Catalysts business unit has opened a new office in Jakarta. This third location for Engineering Services in Asia-Pacific (APAC) brings the global total to 16 offices, said the company.

The expansion is aimed at enhancing regional support, particularly in the southern APAC countries, with a focus on catalysts for ethylene and styrene and syngas applications, as well as distillate upgrading, hydrogenation, and oxidation.

Inaugurated in September, the new office is based at Clariant’s site in Tangerang, near Jakarta, Indonesia. The catalyst specialists appointed for the office will work closely with regional colleagues. Clariant already operates a joint-venture catalyst production facility near Jakarta, in Cikampek.

Stefan Heuser, Senior Vice President & General Manager Business Unit Catalysts at Clariant, commented on the development, stating, "APAC is a vast region with a wide distribution of customers having diverse requirements and applications. The investment brings value to our customers’ businesses, as it allows us to work more closely on their challenges, and respond more quickly with optimal solutions."

The new office is based at Clariant’s site in Tangerang, near the capital city of Jakarta. Clariant operates a joint-venture catalyst production facility near Jakarta, in Cikampek.

As MRC informed earlier, Clariant announced that it has been awarded a contract by Dongguan Grand Resource Science & Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a new propane dehydrogenation unit in cooperation with CB&I. The Dongguan plant will be one of the largest single-train dehydrogenation units in the world. Clariant's technology partner CB&I will base the plant's design on its Catofin® catalytic dehydrogenation technology, which uses Clariant's tailor-made Catofin catalyst and Heat Generating Material (HGM).

Propylene is the main feedstock for producing polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated consumption of PP in the Russian market totalled 694,210 tonnes in January-June 2019, up by 14% year on year. The supply of propylene block copolymers (PP-block) and propylene homopolymers (PP-homo) increased.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints. Clariant India has local masterbatch production activities at Rania, Kalol and Nandesari (Gujarat) and Vashere (Maharashtra) sites in India.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Neste, the world’s leading provider of renewable diesel, renewable jet fuel, and an expert in delivered drop-in renewable chemical solutions, and Ravago, the world’s leading distributor and recycler of polymers, are joining forces to develop chemical recycling of plastic waste with the aim to reach significant industrial scale, said Britishplastics.

Neste and Ravango have set a joint target to reach an annual capacity to process over 200,000 tonnes of waste plastic.

Through collaborating in chemical recycling, Neste and Ravago are aiming to accelerate circularity of materials and improve resource efficiency in the petrochemical industry.

The two companies also want to provide more sustainable alternatives to primary fossil feedstock.

As MRC informed earlier, Neste is committed to lowering its carbon footprint in production ahead of the EU’s climate and energy targets. One concrete example of Neste’s climate work is its new long-term agreement on wind power with a leading clean-energy company Fortum.

As MRC informed earlier, Neste Oyj and Borealis Polymers Oy, in co-operation with the energy companies Fortum Power and Heat Oy, Helen Oy, Vantaan Energia Oy and Porvoon Energia Oy - Borga Energi Ab, will conduct a preliminary study on recovering and utilizing excess heat generated at the Neste and Borealis industrial manufacturing facilities in Kilpilahti.

As MRC wrote before, in March 2018, Borealis and United Chemical Company LLP (UCC) signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) for the development of a world-scale polyethylene project, integrated with an ethane cracker, in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

In October 2019, Borealis AG lifted a force majeure declared early last month at its production site in Kallo, the company has confirmed to PNE. On 2 Sep, the company declared force majeure on refinery grade propylene and propane from its production site in Kallo, Belgium, as a consequence of “unforeseen technical issues."

Borealis produces polypropylene at the Burghausen site.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, 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.

Neste (NESTE, Nasdaq Helsinki) creates sustainable solutions for transport, business, and consumer needs. The company's wide range of renewable products enable our customers to reduce climate emissions. The company is the world's largest producer of renewable diesel refined from waste and residues, introducing renewable solutions also to the aviation and plastics industries. It is also a technologically advanced refiner of high-quality oil products.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., which pumps most of the UAE's 3 million b/d of crude oil, will look to bring in partners for its new refinery project in the industrial hub of Ruwais as part of plans to boost refining capacity to 1.5 million b/d by 2026, reported S&P Global with reference to a company executive's statement.

"We are looking to bring in partners but we did not start this exercise yet," Hassan al Hosani, vice president of the refining business at ADNOC, said on Wednesday at the Middle East Executive Petroleum Conference in Abu Dhabi.

"We want to develop the project first and then we will look for partners," he said, adding that ADNOC is likely to retain a majority stake in the project.

State-owned companies are transforming themselves - not just to survive, but to thrive. Many NOCs are opening up, diversifying, driving a new wave of downstream development and trading businesses to reach new markets and evolve beyond just national champions.

ADNOC plans to spend USD45 billion with partners to develop its downstream operations in Ruwais, west of the capital of Abu Dhabi. These projects include adding refining and petrochemical capacity. ADNOC is also on track to boost its oil production capacity to 4 million b/d by 2020 and 5 million b/d by 2030, CEO Sultan al Jaber said in September.

ADNOC Refining currently has a processing capacity of crude and condensate exceeding 922,000 b/d.

Earlier this year, ADNOC awarded Scotland-based Wood an USD8 million contract to deliver pre-front end engineering and design (pre-feed) for the new refinery project in Ruwais, which is expected to have a capacity of 600,000 b/d.

The new refinery will be designed to have full conversion and will be integrated with petrochemical projects planned in Ruwais.

ADNOC also this year awarded Austria's OMV and Italy's Eni 15% and 20% stakes, respectively, in ADNOC Refining as part of plans to boost its downstream business. The remaining stake is with ADNOC.

ADNOC has shortlisted a number of companies and will select one of them as technology licensor in the second quarter of next year, Hosani said.

Once the technology licensor is selected then the company can have a rough idea of the cost of the refining project, which could be built in phases.

"The intention is 600,000 b/d, but we are looking at it from a business case point of view," he said. "It all depends on the configuration and feedstock. We can do a new refinery. We could do a new refinery with a smaller one and debottleneck the existing one, that's all under discussion."

The current refinery project is made up of a West facility with a capacity of around 400,000 b/d, an East facility with 140,000 b/d and a condensate processing facility, he said.

ADNOC is also on track to upgrade the existing West refinery to process crudes other than Murban to free it up for export, he added. The USD3.1 billion crude flexibility program is currently in the engineering procurement and construction stage and will be done per schedule by 2022.

The program will allow the West refinery to process crudes such as Upper Zakum and others.

As MRC informed before, ADNOC conducted maintenance works at its Ruwais Refinery West Cracker in July 2019.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lukoil, Russia’s second largest oil producer, does not plan to invest in Saudi Aramco’s planned initial public offering, its CEO and biggest shareholder, reported Reuters with reference to Vagit Alekperov's statement.

Saudi state oil giant Aramco plans to start the offering, set to rank it as the world’s most valuable company, on Nov. 17.

It has not said how much of the company will be floated or named any cornerstone investors.

"Lukoil is not considering investing in Saudi Aramco shares. Lukoil is not an institutional investor," Alekperov said.

The head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund said last week that the Russia-China Investment Fund is working to attract Chinese investors for Saudi Aramco’s IPO.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, Stavrolen (part of Lukoil), Russia's major polyolefins producer, resumed its polypropylene (PP) production in Budennovsk after a long scheduled turnaround. The plant's customers said Stavrolen had fully resumed its PP production after the long scheduled maintenance by 15 October. The outage began on 6 September. The start-up of the plant"s high density polyethylene (HDPE) production took place with a week delay.

Lukoil is one of the leading vertically integrated oil company in Russia. The company's main activities include operations for exploration and production of oil and gas, production and sale of petroleum products. Lukoil is the second largest private oil company worldwide by proven hydrocarbon reserves. Lukoil's structure includes one of the largest Russian petrochemical plant - Stavrolen.

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.
MRC