Nigeria's NNPC allocates four February crude oil cargoes to Dangote refinery

Nigeria's state oil company NNPC is expected to supply four crude cargoes from its February program to the $20-B Dangote refinery, which is poised to begin operations after years of construction delays, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

What will be Africa's biggest refinery has said it could begin test runs as early as this week, adding that it has received six initial crude cargoes. OPEC member Nigeria currently relies on imports for most of the fuel it consumes, but the Dangote refinery is expected to make it self-sufficient and able to export fuel to neighbors in West Africa, potentially transforming oil trading in the Atlantic Basin.

Dangote received 1 million barrels of Nigeria's Agbami crude on Monday, lifting total volumes received since December to 6 million barrels. NNPC supplied the 650,000 bpd plant with four of the cargoes, two of the sources said. A spokesperson for NNPC declined to comment.

Dangote's group executive director for strategy, portfolio development and capital projects, Edwin Devakumar, said the company did not request cargoes from NNPC for January. "We are starting the refinery and if we continue to line up cargoes our inventory will build up as well as costs," he said. "If everything goes well, we will run for 8-10 days of operation then we will begin to line up cargoes."

The refinery is also looking at crude supplies from other countries, he said without disclosing further detail. One of the sources said that the refinery has nominated four NNPC cargoes for February. A second source said that NNPC wanted to wait for the plant's test runs before sending more oil. Initial processing capacity is expected to reach 350,000 bpd, with the aim of ramping up to full capacity by the end of the year, Dangote said.

We remind, MAIRE announced that its subsidiary Tecnimont successfully achieved the mechanical completion of the rehabilitation works of the old plant (Area 5) for a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) in Nigeria. The rehabilitation works, awarded in April 2021 for a total value of USD 1.5 billion, entail engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) activities aiming at fully restoring the Port Harcourt complex to a minimum of 90% of its nameplate capacity.

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In a year of high inflation, rising interest rates, and sharp currency depreciations, Sika held firm and achieved record sales, said the company.

These amounted to CHF 11.24 billion in the year under review, equating to a rise of 7.1% in CHF. Almost all currencies depreciated considerably against the Swiss franc, which led to a negative currency effect of -7.4%. One key growth driver in the past fiscal year was the acquisition and successful integration of MBCC and the systematic merger of its business activities. However, the negative currency effect also played a major role in the MBCC business that was consolidated as of the beginning of May. Sika is expecting annual synergies of CHF 180–200 million following the acquisition.

"Sika has once again proved its resilience over the past twelve months. Thanks to our well-functioning business model, our high level of innovation, and the strong commitment of our 33,000 employees around the world, we have continued to grow substantially and gained market share in what has been a challenging year. We are benefiting from high customer demand from the major growth trends such as sustainability, urbanization, and automation. With our Strategy 2028, our geographical footprint, and our leading technologies, we are ideally positioned to continue to achieve sustainable growth in the coming years and create added value for all our stakeholders."

In general, the growth trends of the first nine months continued in the final quarter of fiscal 2023. All regions performed well and contributed to Sika’s further growth and the systematic expansion of market shares. In 2023, Sika experienced positive organic growth, compared to a market that was characterized by a negative organic development.

We remind, Sika has put into operation new production lines for the concrete admixture Sigunit® in Kirchberg, in the Canton of Berne, thereby investing in the expansion of manufacturing capacities in its home market, said the company. The shotcrete accelerator is mainly used in tunneling and excavation stabilization.

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The St. Petersburg automobile plant belonging to South Korea's Hyundai (Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus LLC) has emerged from a period of downtime, said Interfax.

"Downtime has not been extended. We are engaged in personnel training and equipment maintenance," the company's press service told Interfax. Earlier it was reported that the car plant had suspended vehicle production as of March 1, 2022 due to difficulties with component supplies.

It is expected that the plant will be sold for a symbolic price to the Art-Finance company, which is close to the Avilon dealer holding, which had previously purchased Volkswagen's Russian assets. "Hyundai is currently negotiating with Art-Finance on the details of the transaction," the automaker's statement said.

Meanwhile, Hyundai plans to continue to provide after-sales service and other services to its customers in Russia. The transaction price was not specified in the company's statement. It was approved at a symbolic 140 thousand won, or approximately 10,000 rubles at the current exchange rate, South Korean daily the Chosun Ilbo said.

Art-Finance LLC, mentioned as the buyer of the assets in the Hyundai statement, was registered in Moscow in February 2023. Its main owner is CEO of the Avilon car dealer group, Andrei Pavlovich.

In May 2023, Art-Finance acquired the assets of the Russian representative office of Volkswagen Group Rus LLC, including the local Volkswagen Components and Service LLC, Scania Leasing LLC, Scania Finance LLC and Scania Insurance LLC, which it controlled. VW reported in its financial statements that these assets were sold for 125 million euro. Later, the legal entities were renamed in a rebranding campaign to create an automobile group from the newly acquired companies called AGR.

Kaliningrad's Avtotor was also interested in Hyundai's Russian assets at one point, including its car plant in St. Petersburg. After ending cooperation with its own South Korean partner and German BMW, Avtotor is now developing cooperation with Chinese brands BAIC, Kaiyi, and SWM in its home region.

The Hyundai plant has been operating in St. Petersburg since 2010. Production of cars there was suspended as of March 2022 due to difficulties with the supply of components. Until the spring of 2022, the enterprise, with a capacity of more than 200,000 cars per year, produced the Hyundai Solaris, Hyundai Creta, Kia Rio and Kia Rio X-Line models. At the end of 2022, the company saw revenues decrease 75.6% to 50.3 billion rubles, and had an 18.8 billion ruble net loss against 11.2 billion rubles of net profit the year before.

We remind, sales of new passenger cars in Russia in 2023 increased 69% YoY on last year's low base to 1.06 million units, Interfax reported, citing data from JSC Passport Industrial Consulting, which is a joint venture of the agency and the JSC Electronic Passport manufacturer's certificate of origin operator. The statistics include data for sales of car brands on the official market as well as parallel imports, which made up nearly 15% of the market for the entirety of last year.

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Sales of new passenger cars in Russia in 2023 increased 69% YoY on last year's low base to 1.06 million units, Interfax reported, citing data from JSC Passport Industrial Consulting, which is a joint venture of the agency and the JSC Electronic Passport manufacturer's certificate of origin operator.

The statistics include data for sales of car brands on the official market as well as parallel imports, which made up nearly 15% of the market for the entirety of last year.

In December last year, 119,454 cars were sold in Russia, which is a 2.1-fold increase YoY and 8.9% more than in November 2023.

We remind, Novatek has received Russian patents for large-capacity technologies for the production of low-carbon ammonia and ammonia cracking with pure hydrogen. The production technology of low-carbon ammonia was developed by Novatekom in collaboration with Russian design institutes and is based on the method of steam reforming of natural gas.

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Lummus Technology announced a major investment in Resynergi, a pioneering leader in plastic recycling technology, to scale production of Resynergi's modular Continuous Microwave Assisted Pyrolysis (CMAP) technology, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

CMAP converts plastic waste into reusable materials at a rate 20 times faster than traditional pyrolysis methods. Lummus' President and Chief Executive Officer, Leon de Bruyn, will also join Resynergi's board of directors.

"Lummus' is not only investing in Resynergi, we are partnering with true innovators to develop and scale sustainable solutions that advance the circular economy," said Leon de Bruyn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lummus Technology. "Combining our global licensing expertise with Resynergi's proven CMAP technology will help us accelerate the conversion of plastic waste into high-quality, reusable material. I also look forward to collaborating with Resynergi's team and the board of directors to help reduce the carbon footprint of conventional plastics production and meet the growing demand for recycled plastics."

"The investment from Lummus, along with their global licensing expertise, will allow us to scale our innovative recycling technology and collectively reduce our dependence on fossil fuels by addressing plastic waste and accelerate plastic circularity," said Resynergi Chief Executive Officer Brian Bauer.

With an estimated 70% growth in plastic waste by 2050, Resynergi's modular CMAP technology is positioned to scale waste conversion creating positive social and environmental impact.

We remind, Lummus Technology, a global provider of process technologies and value-driven energy solutions, and Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation (“Toshiba”) announced a master collaboration agreement to jointly pursue carbon capture projects. Lummus will provide its post-combustion carbon capture technology and Toshiba will provide its advanced amine-based solvents specifically tailored for post-combustion carbon capture and its system design guidelines optimized for Toshiba’s solvents.

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