Chevron donates USD1M for Australian fire relief efforts

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Australia has announced a USD1million donation to Australian Red Cross to support their disaster relief and recovery efforts for the current bushfires across Australia, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The donation will assist Australian Red Cross in providing support such as emergency grants to people who have lost their homes or whose homes are uninhabitable, specialist personnel in recovery centres and facilitating wellbeing and outreach activity.

The funding will also provide support to community events in bushfire-affected communities and assist households and communities prepare for bushfires and other natural disasters.

Chevron Australia managing director Al Williams said many communities across Australia had felt the severe impact of the bushfire disaster.

"Our thoughts are with the impacted families and emergency personnel fighting the fires and contributing to the recovery effort," Williams said.

"Chevron Australia is committed to supporting Australian communities, particularly in times of need." The donation will be directed to the Australian Red Cross’ Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund.

In addition to this contribution, Chevron Australia will be matching employee contributions to Australian Red Cross and will be providing employees currently volunteering in the firefighting efforts with full leave entitlements.

Chevron is one of the world's leading integrated energy companies and through its Australian subsidiaries, has been present in Australia for more than 60 years. With the ingenuity and commitment of thousands of workers, Chevron Australia operates the Gorgon and Wheatstone natural gas facilities; manages its equal one-sixth interest in the North West Shelf Venture; operates Australia’s largest onshore oilfield on Barrow Island; and is a significant investor in exploration.

In December 2019, Chevron Australia Downstream Pty Ltd, announced it had signed a conditional Share Sale Agreement with Puma Energy Asia Pacific B.V. to acquire all shares and equity interests of Puma Energy (Australia) Holdings Pty Ltd which holds assets including a network of company-owned and retailer-owned service stations across Australia.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

Headquartered in San Ramon, California, Chevron Corporation is the the second-largest integrated energy company in the United States and among the largest corporations in the world. Chevron is involved in upstream activities including exploration and production, downstream activities including refining, marketing and transportation, and advanced energy technology. Chevron is also invested in power generation and gasification processes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PetroChina's subsidiary refinery, Dalian Petrochemical Corp, plans to have a major turnaround in April-May of 2020, four industry sources told Reuters, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The maintenance is scheduled to start from late March or early April and will last for around one and a half months, the sources said.

The 410,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) plant in the northeast Chinese port city of Dalian, PetroChina's biggest refinery, is linked to Russia's East Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline and is China's largest processor of the pipeline ESPO blend crude.

PetroChina did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russian state oil giant Rosneft supplies 30 million tonnes of oil annually, or 600,000 bpd, via the pipeline to China under a term contract.

According to two sources familiar with the matter, pipeline crude supplies from Russia will be slightly lower in April-May 2020 as a result of the maintenance.

PetroChina may divert the ESPO blend flows to other plants in the region such as Liaoyang and Jilin, which are also linked to the pipeline, a third source said.

As MRC wrote previously, Sichuan Petrochemical (part of PetroChina) undertook an emergency shutdown at its naphtha cracker in Sichuan province of China on July 11, 2018 owing to a gas leak at its natural gas supply pipeline. Further details on duration of the outage could not be ascertained. Located at Sichuan province of China, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 800,000 mt/year.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Libya's oil infrastructure has once again found itself in the crosshairs of the country's prolonged civil conflict between the UN-backed Government of National Accord and the self-styled Libyan National Army, as per S&P Global.

The country's 120,000 b/d Zawiya refinery was the target of an airstrike on 27 December, 2019, and state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) confirmed that sites near the oil storage facility operated by the Zawiya refinery were hit by a bomb on Friday.

A source close to the matter said, however, that operations at the refinery were not affected by the strikes in late December.

NOC said the airstrike targeted a storage warehouse west of Zawiya refinery gate but no casualties were reported.

Sources told S&P Global Platts that the airstrikes were carried out by the LNA as it is making its way to capture western parts of Libya like Zawiya, Tripoli and Misrata which are still not under its control.

"Targeting the refinery is a war crime. If the refinery is damaged it will deprive vital facilities including hospitals, and power and desalination plants of fuel," NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla said.

"It will require additional gasoline and diesel imports, costing the Libyan people tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. The repetition of these absurd actions will lead to human and material losses and environmental disasters."

Oil infrastructure in western Libya is a key risk, especially the town of Zawiya, which is home to a 300,000 b/d export terminal and a 120,000 b/d refinery, along with Sabratha, where the Mellitah gas and condensate terminal is located. In late-November, Libya's El Feel field in the southwest of the country was briefly shut due to military action around the facility.

Political tensions are ratcheting up in Libya. Despite a protracted conflict in the North African country, production remains high, though supply disruptions could reappear.

The UN-backed Government of National Accord has called for Turkish military troops to assist it in the battle against the self-styled Libyan National Army, which has now entered into its ninth month.

Libya's fragile peace, which has seen oil production recover to above 1 million b/d, could soon end. Analysts believe there could be several clashes between LNA and various rivals groups and militias including forces loyal to the UN-backed Government of National Accord which could spill to the country's lucrative oil and gas sector.

Almost all of Libya's key oil terminals and infrastructure, especially those in the east of the country, are already controlled by General Khalifa Haftar's LNA.

The country's oil industry has been at the mercy of groups vying for control of valuable assets, with armed attacks on key pipelines and production facilities since the 2011 civil war.

NOC also renewed its call to all warring parties to stay away from its sites, and not to harm the only source of income for the Libyans.

Libyan crude production averaged 1.05 million b/d this year, according to Platts estimates, compared to 950,000 b/d and 810,000 b/d in 2018 and 2017 respectively.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nigeria's state oil company said in late December it will increase its stake in a Chevron-operated gas-to-liquid refinery to 60% as part of a cost dispute resolution with the US oil major, reported Reuters.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has a 20%stake in the plant some 60 miles (100 km) southeast of Lagos.

California-based Chevron, which is trying to sell some Nigerian assets in an effort to focus on its fast-growing US production, did not immediately comment.

The 33,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) plant, which produces synthetic diesel, liquefied petroleum gas and naphtha from natural gas using technology from South Africa's Sasol, cost around $10 billion to build, four times the original estimate, and its start-up in mid-2014 was years late.

As MRC informed previously, in March 2018, Chevron Phillips Chemical, part of Chevron Corp, Chevron successfully introduced feedstock and commenced operations of a new ethane cracker at its Cedar Bayou facility in Baytown, Texas,. At peak production, the unit will produce 1.5 million metric tons/3.3 billion lbs. per year. This unit is one of the largest and most energy efficient crackers in the world. In September 2017, the company announced the successful commissioning and start-up of two new Marlex polyethylene units in Old Ocean, Texas, based on the company’s proprietary MarTech technologies. Together, these assets form the bulk of the company’s US Gulf Coast Petrochemicals Project (USGCPP), which was first announced in 2011.

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

ding to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

Headquartered in San Ramon, California, Chevron Corporation is the the second-largest integrated energy company in the United States and among the largest corporations in the world. Chevron is involved in upstream activities including exploration and production, downstream activities including refining, marketing and transportation, and advanced energy technology. Chevron is also invested in power generation and gasification processes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dear readers of MRC!

We congratulate you on Christmas and New Year!

We wish you every happiness this Holiday season and throughout the coming year.

All of MRC staff join in saying “thank you” and wishing you a happy holiday and prosperous new year.

On this special day, we wish you happiness, prosperity and success, hoping that we continue our association through many more wonderful years ahead!

Best wishes,

MRC staff.


MRC