MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian Oil Corp. (IOC), the country's top refiner, will increase crude purchases from Iraq by 11.5% in 2022 to 390,000 bpd, partly to make up for a shortfall from Mexico and a possible supply cut from Kuwait, reported Reuters with reference to two sources familiar with the matter.
Iraq is the top supplier of oil to India and its market share there is set to rise as another refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp. will also buy more crude from the Middle Eastern nation.
India is the world's third biggest oil importer.
IOC has resorted to buying higher volumes from Iraq as Mexico is curbing supplies as it opens a new refinery, sources said.
Indian refiners also expect oil supplies from Kuwait could be cut in the next fiscal year starting in April as Kuwait aims to start its 615,000 bpd Al-Zour refinery this year, the sources said.
Last year, Kuwait had initially signed a nine-month oil supply contract with Indian refiners but later extended it by three months to March 2022 due to a delay in the commissioning of Al-Zour refinery.
Mexico's national oil company Pemex has agreed to supply 22,000 bpd (1.1 MM tons) of oil to IOC, the sources said.
As MRC informed before, in late January, 2022, Pemex signed a long-term crude supply contract with Royal Dutch Shell Plc as part of its acquisition of the Deer Park refinery in Texas. Pemex and Shell in May, 2021, announced the transaction, which is worth almost USD600 MM and will make the Mexican firm the sole owner of the refinery near Houston. The facility has capacity to process 340,000 bpd. Shell will supply about 200,000 bpd of foreign and US crude to the plant for at least 15 years.
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 2,265,290 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2021, up by 14% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,363,850 tonnes in January-November, 2021, up by 25% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC