Latest News
08.02.10
Essar's Vadinar refinery capacity to expand by an additional 12.5% View
India’s second biggest private refiner, Essar Oil, will expand the capacity of its Vadinar refinery in Gujarat by 12.5% more than initially planned, to 360,000 bpd by March 2011, from the current 210,000 bpd. Essar was originally planning to increase the capacity of the existing 10.5m tonne per year crude distillation unit (CDU) to 16m tonnes. A visbreaker will now be converted into a CDU which will raise overall capacity to 18m tonnes per year. Vadinar’s capacity will later double to 720,000 bpd, during a $4.4bn second expansion phase, which will add a new 360,000 bpd refinery by 2012. The first phase will allow the plant to produce EURO-IV and EURO V fuels while the second phase will meet EURO V as well as US specifications. The plant will reportedly stop producing fuel oil, which now accounts for a fourth of its output, upon completion of the expansion. Furthermore, Essar is planning to increase its number of retail stations by approximately 16% to 1,500 in 2011.05.02.10
South Korea's coal consumption expandsView
South Korea's coal consumption expanded further in 2009 despite a downturn in demand by both the iron and steel and cement sectors. The overall increase in bituminous consumption to a preliminary 96.2 Mt was caused by an 11% increase in demand by the power stations. The iron and steel sector fell by a preliminary 14.1% to 20.2 Mt and cement consumers recorded a similar 13.8% fall to 4.4 Mt. However the increase in power generation from coal stations was more than enough to offset these declines and consumption here rose to a preliminary 69.3 Mt. With thermal coal imports in 2009 at 80.5 Mt (+6.5 Mt) it is clear that the identical increase in consumption (+6.5 Mt) was all supplied by imports.04.02.10
Total expands in JanuaryView
Total and the Italian oil and gas company ERG Petroli formed a joint venture in January to combine their marketing and refining businesses in Italy. The new venture will be known as TotalErg. Total will own 49% of the new entity that will hold an approximate 13% market share of retail sales and over 3,400 service stations. Total refining capacity will be at 116,000 bpd covering around 8% of national demand. Excluded from the deal are Erg’s refineries in Sicily and Total Italia’s aviation operations. The deal is expected to close in October 2010. Meanwhile, Total opened its EURO 60m Lacq Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) pilot project in southwestern France in January. The project will produce a flue gas that is 90% carbon which will then be piped to the Rousse storage site and injected into a depleted natural gas reservoir some 4,500 meters below ground. Total estimated that it will capture and store around 120,000 tonnes of CO2 over the next two years.03.02.10
Japan's coal imports fell 15.6% in 2009View
Japan's coal imports fell 15.6% in 2009 to 161.9 Mt (2008: 191.7 Mt). As the world's largest coal importer shipments to the country have been quite robust over recent years rising steadily on the back of increased demand in the power stations. Imports of steam coal had in fact risen from around 30 Mt in 1990 to 105 Mt in 2008. Throughout this period coking coal imports averaged typically 75 Mt annually. However the economic crisis hit Japan hard and both steam coal and coking coal imports were cut sharply by 12.5% (to 92 Mt) and 18.6% (to 65.6 Mt), respectively.03.02.10
Russian crude oil production increasesView
Russian average crude oil and condensate production levels in January remained at December’s 10.04m bpd (42.472m tonnes) levels, up 2.8% year-on-year, according to preliminary energy ministry data. Bashneft’s production increased 4.7% on December and approximately 14% year-on-year to reach 267,700 bpd. Rosneft, who begun production at the Vankor field in 2009, increased its total production by 6% year-on-year to 2.425m bpd. The company is planning to increase Vankor’s output from a current 220,000 bpd to 230,000-270,000 bpd within the year. Lukoil’s production averaged 1.844m bpd in January, up 1.3% from December or 0.1% year-on-year. Lukoil is set to launch its Y.Korchagina field in the Caspian Sea in April, which will help boost output levels. TNK-BP also increased production by 4% year-on-year to 1.418m bpd and Tatneft’s production rose by 1% to 525,200 bpd. Similarly to the state-owned companies, production at projects Sakhalin-1, Sakhalin-2 and Kharyaga, which are operated under production sharing agreements with international oil companies, increased by 11% year-on-year although decreased by 1.8% from December.02.02.10
Latin American refinery expansion plans View
Latin American planned refinery projects may face delays or cancellations as a result of the global recession taking its toll on oil demand, refinery margins and the availability of credit. Venezuela is troubled with financing difficulties for the completion of a 400,000 bpd facility in Cabruta that is planned to process heavy crude oil from the Orinoco belt and a 300,000 bpd joint venture plant in Ecuador. Meanwhile, Ecuador’s debt default in 2008 is adding constraints on the country’s access to credit. For some mature areas such as Mexico, a decline in domestic production may also create feedstock shortages for new plants such as the planned 300,000 bpd refinery near Tula. Conversely, Brazil is moving on with its refinery capacity expansion plans, supported by a strong economy, access to finance and increasing domestic production. State-owned Petrobras begun working on a 600,000 bpd refinery in Maranhao in early January with another three plants planned in the north and one in Rio de Janeiro. The five projects are expected to add a total of 1.3m bpd of refinery capacity by 2015, bringing Brazil’s overall capacity to approximately 3.3m bpd.02.02.10
Japan's iron ore imports 2009 down 25%View
Japan's production of crude steel in 2009 fell to 87.5 Mt (down 26%), pig iron production fell by 22% to 66.9 Mt and iron ore imports, as a consequence, fell by 24.9% to 105.5 Mt. Australia and Brazil remained the two dominant suppliers to Japan accounting for 61% and 27% of supplies respectively although both saw reductions of around 20% in export volumes. India and South Africa were the next two significant suppliers but each supplied less than 5% of Japan's total imports.01.02.10
Japanese crude oil imports down 12.7% in 2009View
Japanese crude oil imports averaged 3.65m bpd in 2009, down 12.7% from the previous year. December government data points to a decrease of 2.6% year-on-year to 4.06m bpd. Japan’s total domestic sales fell by 6.9% to 3.33m bpd with the largest declines noted in the fuel oil (-23.7%) and jet fuel (-8.9%) segments. Declines were also seen in sales of naphtha (-2%), kerosene (-4.1%) and gas oil (-5.5%). Japan has handed over the title of Asia’s top oil importer to China in 2009, while the International Energy Agency forecasts in its latest Oil Market Report that the country’s average crude oil demand will decline to 4.16m bpd in 2010 from 4.35m bpd in 2009. According to the report, refinery utilisation in November 2009 stood at 74.60% compared to 77.91% in November 2008 and refinery throughput averaged 3.49m bpd compared to 3.64m bpd the year before.01.02.10
World Primary Aluminium Production down 8.8%View
World primary aluminium production fell by 8.8% in 2009 to 23.4 Mt according to the IAI. Only the Asian region saw any increase in 2009 over 2008 (+12.2% to 4.4 Mt). The most severe fall was recorded in western Europe (-19.4% to 3.7 Mt). China's output fell by 1.1% to 13.0 Mt according to China's Nonferrous Metals Industry Association.29.01.10
Argentina's grain exports in 2009View
As widely heralded Argentina's grain exports slumped dramatically in calendar 2009. After the 26.8 Mt shipped in 2008 - just short of the record 26.9 Mt of 2007 - exports slipped to 15.9 Mt as a result of drought then, perversely, harvesting affected by rains. Wheat and maize exports were most affected and slipped to 6.2 Mt (2008: 9.9 Mt) and 8.0 Mt (2008: 15.0 Mt), respectively. For the current calendar year planting of the new crop has just been completed with production estimates for maize raised to 15.0 Mt (13.1 Mt). For Argentina's marketing year trades estimates of coarse grain are forecast at 8.2 Mt (14.4 Mt). Soyabean production is expected to rebound due to better average yields and could reach as high as 51.0 Mt - some 60% up on last year's output.
