MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil and gas producer Hess Corp forecast a small drop in output and set a USD1.9 billion budget for 2021, most of which will go to Guyana, touted as one of the most important new oil and gas discoveries in the last decade, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The company has been relying on its investment in offshore Guyana, one of the world's most important oil and gas blocks in the last decade, which is being developed by a consortium led by oil major Exxon Mobil Corp. Hess has allotted USD780 million, or 41% of its budget, to development activities in offshore Guyana.
"We also will continue to invest in an active exploration and appraisal program, with 12-15 wells planned on the Stabroek Block (offshore Guyana)," said Chief Operating Officer Greg Hill. Hess forecast net production to average about 310,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2021, excluding Libya, compared with 2020 estimate of 325,000 boepd.
For 2020, the New York-based energy company had estimated to spend USD1.8 billion. The company will also add a rig in the first quarter in North Dakota's Bakken shale play, adding to a single rig there since May. There were six rigs in the Bakken at the start of last year before the company slashed production to cope with a oil price crash.
Bakken net production is estimated to average about 170,000 boepd in 2021, which despite the addition of a rig, would be below 2020's estimated 190,000 boepd, partly hit by a planned 45-day turnaround activity at the Tioga Gas Plant in the third quarter cutting output by about 7,500 boepd in 2021.
As per MRC, 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. This comes after Saudi Arabia pledged additional voluntary output cuts of 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in February and March under a deal between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+.
As MRC wrote previously, Formosa Petrochemical Corporation (FPCC) was running its crackers in Taiwan at 100% capacity utilisation in end-December, 2020. The company"s crackers have combined ethylene production capacity of 2.935 million metric tons/year. Meanwhile, FPCC is planning overhaul of the smallest cracker in mid-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.
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