MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nigeria is losing 200,000 barrels of crude oil a day because of theft and vandalism, the head of the state oil company said, underscoring how insecurity is causing vast financial losses for the West African country, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
With Brent Crude oil prices hovering around USD66.70, the losses would amount to more than USD13 million a day and more than USD4.8 billion a year, at a time when Nigeria needs funds to tackle poverty, improve security and boost the economy, which shrank 1.92% in 2020 in part due to the pandemic.
The group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, made the comments on Wednesday while meeting the new head of Nigeria's military, Lucky Irabor, a statement from the firm said.
"In terms of crude losses, it is still going on," said Kyari in the statement. "On the average, we are losing 200,000 barrels of crude every day," he added, attributing the losses to thieves and vandals. Irabor said the armed forces would protect Nigeria's oil and gas.
"Our existence, economically, rests almost solely on the NNPC, and to that extent, we must do everything possible to give you everything that you require," he said.
As per MRC, Nigeria’s state oil firm NNPC is in talks to raise around USD1 billion in a prepayment with trading firms to refurbish its largest refining complex at Port Harcourt. If the financing is concluded, the long overdue rehabilitation of the refinery should reduce Nigeria’s hefty fuel import bill. It would also mark Nigeria’s second oil-backed financing since the COVID-19 pandemic that has added to the difficulty of finding investors as fuel demand is sapped by lockdowns and renewable energy is gaining ground over fossil fuels.
We remind that the COVID-19 outbreak has led to an unprecedented decline in demand affecting all sections of the Russian economy, which has impacted the demand for petrochemicals in the short-term. However, the pandemic triggered an increase in the demand for polymers in food packaging, and cleaning and hygiene products, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. With Russian petrochemical companies having the advantage of access to low-cost feedstock, and proximity to demand-rich Asian (primarily China) and European markets for the supply of petrochemical products, these companies appear to be well-positioned to derive full benefits from an improving market environment and global economy post-COVID-19.
We also remind that in December 2020, Sibur, Gazprom Neft, and Uzbekneftegaz agreed to cooperate on potential investments in Uzbekistan including a major expansion of Uzbekneftegaz’s existing Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex (SGCC) and the proposed construction of a new gas chemicals facility. The signed cooperation agreement for the projects includes “the creation of a gas chemical complex using methanol-to-olefins (MTO) technology, and the expansion of the production capacity of the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex”.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
MRC