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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Top oil exporter
Saudi Arabia is expected to raise its official selling prices (OSPs) for Asian
buyers for a second straight month in February, tracking stronger benchmark
prices and product cracks, reported The Economic Times with
reference to a Reuters survey.
Three sources at Asian refiners
expect the February OSP for the flagship grade Arab Light to rise by 33 cents a
barrel on average, with their forecasts ranging between an increase of 30 cents
and 40 cents.
In December strong spot crude purchases pushed up the
average differentials to Dubai swaps for the cash Dubai and DME Oman benchmarks
by about 41 cents and 17 cents a barrel respectively from last month, data
compiled by Reuters showed on Wednesday.
Asia's cracks for a range of oil
products - naphtha, gasoil , jet fuel and fuel oil , strengthened this month on
improved demand.
Asia's gasoline crack, however, has dipped recently on
concerns that restored mobility restrictions to combat a new coronavirus variant
would dent near-term demand.
Saudi crude OSPs are usually released around
the fifth of each month and set the trend for Iranian, Kuwaiti and Iraqi prices,
affecting more than 12 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude bound for
Asia.
State oil giant Saudi Aramco sets its crude prices based on
recommendations from customers and after calculating the change in the value of
its oil over the past month, based on yields and product prices.
Saudi
Aramco officials, as a matter of policy, do not comment on the kingdom's monthly
OSPs.
As MRC informed
earlier, top oil exporter Saudi Arabia has cut supplies of February-loading
crude for some Asian buyer by up to a quarter while meeting requirements of at
least four others.
We remind that in October 2019, McDermott
International announced that it
had been awarded a contract by Saudi Aramco and Total Raffinage Chimie (Total)
for their joint venture (JV) Amiral steam cracker project at Jubail, Saudi
Arabia. Amiral is a JV in which Aramco holds 62.5% and Total the rest. The
plant, designed to produce 1.5 million metric tons/year (MMt/y) of ethylene,
will be one of the world's largest mixed-feed crackers.
Aramco and
Total launched
their USD5-billion Amiral JV project in October 2018. The steam cracker will
be fed with a mixture of 50% ethane and refinery off-gases. It will supply
ethylene to a downstream 1 MMt/y polyethylene manufacturing complex and other
petrochemical products. The project aims to fully exploit operational synergies
with the adjacent refinery, owned by Satorp, another JV between Aramco and
Total. Third-party investors, including Daelim and Ineos, will locate plants at
the value park adjacent to Amiral with a combined investment of USD4 billion. A
final investment decision is expected in 2021.
Ethylene and propylene are
feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene
(PP).
According to MRC's DataScope report,
PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and
reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the
greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia
increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months
of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase
in imports.
Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a
Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi
Arabia. Saudi Aramco"s value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the
Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has
both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels,
and largest daily oil production. |
