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MOSCOW (MRC) -- An idled oil storage
facility off Venezuela's eastern coast is in "satisfactory" condition, an
official with state company Petroleos de Venezuela said, after a series of
incidents in recent months raised concerns about environmental hazards, reported
Reuters.
About 1.3 million barrels
of Corocoro crude have been stuck for over a year aboard the Nabarima FSO
(floating storage and offloading facility), part of the Petrosucre joint venture
between PDVSA, as the company is known, and Italy's Eni SpA, as US sanctions
have complicated the nation's exports.
With no operating crew on board,
in July the vessel presented an 8% incline that created the risk of a spill, and
in late August a sea water leak led to flooding in the engine room. Both issues
were resolved.
In the company's first public comments on the issue, PDVSA
offshore executive director Pedro Figuera said in a late Wednesday night tweet
that the vessel "complied with environmental and operational
standards."
"The conditions of normalcy and operational reliability of
the Nabarima vessel have been deemed satisfactory," Figuera wrote, along with a
video of workers aboard the vessel.
Eni had said earlier on Wednesday
that the vessel was "stable" and that it was evaluating options to offload the
crude, some of which would need authorization under the US sanctions
regime.
The concern over the Nabarima comes a month after an oil slick,
which opposition lawmakers said came from PDVSA's El Palito refinery, washed up
on the shores of Morrocoy national park in western Venezuela, known for pristine
beaches and sensitive mangroves.
As MRC informed before,
Russian state oil company Rosneft's decision to cease operations in Venezuela
and sell its assets there to a Russian government-owned company was a "maneuver"
made in reaction to collapsing oil prices, a US State Department official said
earlier this year.
We remind that Angarsk Polymers Plant, part of Russian
oil giant Rosneft, has resumed
its low density polyethylene (LDPE) production after an unscheduled shutdown
because of a technical issues at the ethylene unit. The plant"s customers said
Angarsk Polymers Plant had brought on-stream its LDPE production by 28 August
after the forced shutdown due to technical problems at its ethylene production.
And the first shipments of polyethylene (PE) to customers began on 31 August.
The outage lasted slightly over two weeks and began on 10 August The plant"s
annual production capacity is about 75,000 tonnes.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
June estimated LDPE consumption in Russia grew to 55,260 tonnes from 45,490
tonnes a month earlier. Kazanorgsintez raised its PE output after a spring
shutdown for a scheduled turnaround. Russia's estimated LDPE consumption rose to
291,270 tonnes in January-June 2020, up by 5% year on year. Russian producers
raised their production, and LDPE imports also increased.
We also remind
that Russia's overall PE production totalled 1,712,400 tonnes in the first seven
months of 2020, up by 58% year on year. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE)
accounted for the greatest increase in the output. At the same time, overall PP
production in Russia increased in January-July 2020 by 24% year on year to
1,063,700 tonne. ZapSibNeftekhim accounted for the main increase in the
output. |
