MOSCOW (MRC) -- Australia’s parliament has approved plans to pay Viva Energy Ltd and Ampol Ltd up to AD2.3 billion (USD1.8 billion) to keep their struggling oil refineries open to protect the country’s fuel security, reported Reuters with reference to Energy Minister Angus Taylor's statement.
Under the plan announced in May the government agreed to top up earnings at Australia’s two remaining refineries when refining margins are weak through 2027, with an option to extend to 2030.
It also agreed to provide up to AD125 million each to Ampol and Viva to upgrade their refineries to produce ultra-low sulphur petrol by end-2024. Payments to the refineries will begin from July 1, the government said.
The fuel industry will also be required to hold minimum stocks of 24 days of petrol and jet demand and 20 days of diesel demand from July 2022, with a 40% increase in diesel holdings required from July 2024.
Australia’s ageing refineries have found it difficult to compete with much bigger, new refineries across Asia. The country’s two other refiners - BP and Exxon Mobil Corp - are shutting their plants this year.
As MRC informed before, in Februar, 2021, ExxonMobil Corp said it will close its 72-year-old Altona refinery in Australia, the country’s smallest, and convert it to a fuel import terminal as refiners struggle with low demand.
And in March, 2021, BP plc stopped importing oil for its refinery in Western Australia, the country’s largest, and had decommissioned the plant by the end of March.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
MRC