In the oil and company news 18/01/2021

The closure of refineries in the Asia-Pacific region may offset the new wave of supply entering the region.

The pandemic accelerated the wave of refinery closures. Due to low refining profit margins, several regional refineries were forced to close or review operations.

BP plans to close Australia's largest refinery in Kwinana, while Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp plans to close its Tabangao refinery in the Philippines, and several other refineries may be closed.

According to the source, according to market sources, this will help offset a new wave of supply flows, especially the wave of diesel entering the market.

An example is China’s private greenland Zhejiang Petrochemical Company with a capacity of 20 million tons/year, which aims to produce 1.7 million tons/year of diesel. In addition, diesel production from two refineries in the Persian Gulf-Jazan in Saudi Arabia and Al-Zour in Kuwait-will supply new oil to the spot market.

At the same time, some refineries in the region increased production, but other refineries continued to operate at lower prices due to weak profit margins.

** India’s largest oil refinery, Indian Petroleum Corporation, has been operating at full capacity since early November.

** The operation rate of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. in India is 90%.

** India's state-owned refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. has restored the operations of its Kochi and Mumbai refineries to near full capacity.

** The operation rate of the Manali refinery under the Chennai Petroleum Corporation of India is 95%.

** Shell has halved the crude oil processing capacity of its Pulau Bukom refinery in Singapore as part of the energy specialist company's plan to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions to zero by 2050. , A low-carbon value chain," the company said. "We will cut crude oil processing capacity by about half, aiming to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions. "

** South Korea’s top refiner SK Energy has closed two CDUs in Ulsan, but plans to restart Ulsan’s 60,000 barrels/day No. 1 crude distillation unit and 170,000 barrels/day’s No. 3 CDU in January.

** According to reports, Indonesian state-owned Pertamina has stabilized the operating rate of its Balikpapan refinery in East Kalimantan at around 80%. Industry sources pointed out that due to the refining margin, the refinery did not increase its operating rate. The 100% plan for the whole barrel is still very poor.

** The company said in a statement that the Philippine Shell Oil Company plans to close its Tabangao refinery and transform the facility into an import terminal. Due to weak domestic product demand, the refinery has been closed since May 24.

** Petron of the Philippines plans to temporarily suspend its Bataan refinery in mid-January. The refinery will resume processing in accordance with the improvement of the Philippine economy. The company has previously stated that if discussions with the government on tariffs fail, the Bataan plant may be closed.

** New Zealand’s Refining NZ is advancing its plan to transform an oil refinery into an import terminal, launching the next phase of a long-term strategic plan to turn New Zealand into a complete importer of refined oil. Since restarting and simplifying its operations in October, Marsden Point has been operating in a "cash neutral" manner.

**Viva Energy, Australia's second-largest refiner, has decided to avoid closing its Geelong refinery because the company accepted an extended payment lifeline from the Australian Federal Government. The subsidy, also known as "temporary refinery production payment", will last for 6 months from January to July 2021. Refineries participating in the grant must agree to maintain operations for at least the term of the plan, promising "an open process and long-term self-help measures to further inform the development of long-term refinery production payments." The company said in another statement. Said that if the refining profit margin maintains an upward trend, “the company expects that once the temporary refining production payment ends at the end of June 2021, it will be able to maintain the refining business”.

** Ampol, officially known as Caltex Australia, has announced that it has begun a "comprehensive review" of its Lytton refinery in Brisbane, as refining profit margins are chronically sluggish and uncertain, threatening the closure of the facility. "The review will consider all options for the operation of the facility and the related supply chains and markets it serves," Ampol said. Operations, including the necessary investments required to implement each option," the company added.

** The Australian Maritime Union has urged the federal government to nationalize BP's Kwinana refinery instead of allowing it to close. BP Australia stated on October 30 that it plans to close its Kwinana refinery and transform it into a fuel import terminal to better meet the changing needs of the oil market.

** Vietnam’s Nghi Son refinery will keep its operating rate above 100% in the short term, even if the increase in inventory puts pressure on domestic buyers, industry sources said.

** Taiwan Formosa Petrochemical plans to operate its Mai-Liao refinery at a capacity reduction of approximately 60% in January and February, as the demand for refined oil is still tepid, and several secondary units are closed during this period , A company spokesperson said. Formosa Plastics plans to operate its refineries at a rate of 320,000 barrels per day and 330,000 barrels per day in January and February, respectively, operating at 59% and 61% of the nameplate capacity, respectively. Due to low profit margins and low secondary unit operations, Formosa Plastics suspended one of its 180,000 barrels/day crude oil distillation units in November. The source said that the idle CDU is expected to be restarted in the second half of the year, when the company's No. 2 RDS device will be restarted after the repair is completed, and added that the profit margin is also expected to increase by then. The company's RDS No. 2 was closed after the fire on July 15. The restart of the unit was originally planned to take place as early as April. The company has three CDUs in the Mailiao refinery, each with a capacity of 180,000 barrels per day.

** SK Energy plans to reduce the operating rate of the crude distillation unit at the Ulsan Refinery from 65%-70% in December to 60% in January, a company source said. Another company source said that although profit margins in the light and medium distillate markets have risen in recent months, the reason for the reduction in operating rates is that the profit margins of petroleum products are very low.

According to the latest interim data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Group, due to the impact of the coronavirus, India's fuel demand will drop by 11% year-on-year in 2020 to 193.4 million tons, or 4.1 million barrels per day. Analysts said that the decline in demand for petroleum products in 2020 is the first annual contraction since 1999. Diesel demand fell 14.5% year-on-year to 71.91 million tons, while gasoline demand fell 9.3% year-on-year to 27.27 million tons. Due to the demand in the domestic cooking sector, the demand for liquefied petroleum gas in 2020 will increase by 4.3% to 27.41 million tons. Aviation fuel demand fell 47.8% year-on-year to 4.27 million tons, because air travel was severely hit by the blockade.

At the same time, industry sources told S&P Global Platts that domestic gasoline consumption in India increased for the fifth consecutive month in December. Due to the steady decline in COVID-19 cases across the country, public confidence in resuming daily activities will be in the short term. Gradually increase. Demand continues to recover. The latest consumption data from the Indian Petroleum Planning and Analysis Group shows that in December last year, fuel oil consumption set a record of 559,000 tons, an increase of 8.54% from the previous month, but still a decrease of 11% from the same period last year. year.

In other news, informed industry sources told Standard & Poor's Global Platts Energy that Indonesia's Pertamina is expected to increase the production of higher-quality gasoline at its Cilacap refinery, and the proportion of gasoline with an octane number higher than 90 RON will increase. The move is to increase 90 RON gasoline production, which is the next step in the refinery's plan following the completion of the Cilacap Blue Sky project in 2019, which enables the refinery to produce Euro 4 gasoline.

New and ongoing maintenance New and revised entries India** India’s third-largest state-owned refinery Hindustan Petroleum Corporation has shut down the fluid catalytic cracking unit of its Mumbai refinery in early January because of unspecified problems with the unit Industry sources familiar with the matter said the company was forced to shut down for repairs. According to industry sources, the FCC's work is said to continue for approximately two to three weeks starting in early January. During this period, the company expects to increase imports of refined oil to fill the supply gap.

Asia Pacific ** South Korea’s top refiner SK Energy plans to restart Ulsan’s 60,000 barrels/day No. 1 crude oil distillation unit and 170,000 barrels/day No. 3 CDU in January, but the company will maintain a 60% operating rate in January, which is low. 65%-70% in December.

Existing entries in the Asia-Pacific region** Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical plans to operate its Mai-Liao refinery at a production capacity reduction of approximately 60% in January and February, as the demand for refined oil is still tepid, and there will be a few in the meantime. The company’s secondary unit closed, a company spokesperson said. Due to low profit margins and low secondary unit operations, Formosa Plastics suspended one of its 180,000 barrels/day crude oil distillation units in November 2020. According to sources, the idle CDU is expected to restart in the second half of the year, when its No. 2 RDS device will be restarted after the repair is completed, and profit margins are also expected to increase at that time. The company's RDS No. 2 was closed after the fire on July 15. The restart of the unit was originally planned to take place as early as April. The company has three CDUs in the Mailiao refinery, each with a capacity of 180,000 barrels per day. In addition, Taiwan Formosa Petrochemical plans to idle its residue fluidized catalytic cracking unit for gasoline production at its Mai-Liao refinery for 65 days for maintenance from February 23. Formosa Plastics operates two RFCCs, each with a capacity of 84,000 barrels per day. The official said that at present, as propylene profit margins remain strong, both RFCCs are operating at 75% capacity in the maximum propylene mode. Formosa Petrochemical plans to restart the delayed coking unit at the Mailiao refinery around January 25. The unit was shut down on December 1 for 55 days of maintenance.

** On December 30, industry sources familiar with the situation said that Taiwan’s state-run CPC had shut down a crude oil distillation unit at its Taoyuan refinery for maintenance until the end of January. It is said that the construction of the 100,000 barrels/day CDU has already started. A source said that around mid-December, several other secondary units related to the CDU were also closed. The turnaround time of the Taoyuan refinery is approximately 45 days.

** The Sapugaskanda refinery of Sri Lanka Ceylon Petroleum Company will be closed for maintenance from February 15 to April 3, 2021. According to the records of S&P Global Platts, Sri Lanka's state-owned Ceypetco (Ceypetco) closed its refinery last time during Sapugaskanda for maintenance from February 19 to March 25, 2018.

**Viva Energy, Australia's second-largest refiner, said it will postpone the planned maintenance of its hydrofluoric acid alkylation unit from the end of 2020 to 2021.

**New Zealand's Marsden Point plans to carry out a planned turnover of its No. 1 crude oil distillation unit and continuous catalytic reforming platform in 2021. It was originally planned to be carried out in 2020, but the duration is uncertain.

** Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. will close its Tabangao refinery and transform the facility into an import terminal, the company said in a statement posted on its website on August 13. The refinery has been idle since May 24. Domestic product demand is weak.

Upgrading new items and revised items** Byco, Pakistan's largest oil refinery company, has begun an upgrade to produce higher specifications of petroleum products. The company said on January 12 that its refinery had begun construction of the project on January 9. At the 2020 Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders, the company announced plans to install and upgrade its refinery to add two major projects, namely DHDS (diesel hydrodesulfurization) unit and FCC (fluid catalytic cracking) unit. The upgrade will enable the refinery to produce diesel and gasoline that meet Euro 5 and Euro 6 standards, and convert fuel oil into gasoline and diesel.

Existing items** In May, Pertamina and South Korea's Consortium DH Global Holdings Co signed a memorandum of understanding on the upgrade of the Dumai refinery complex, planning to increase the refinery's operating capacity as part of the company's refinery development master plan.

** TPPI in Indonesia has planned the next step of its Tuban refinery upgrade project, taking 2024 as the completion target of its new olefin project. According to the company, the new olefin project will include the construction of a new naphtha cracking unit and necessary downstream equipment, which will provide the facility with additional "1 million tons/year polyethylene products and 600,000 tons/year polyethylene products". ". statement. In addition to the olefin project, TPPI will continue its aromatics conversion project, which will "increase petrochemical production in the form of paraxylene from 600,000 tons/year to 780,000 tons/year," the statement added. The olefin project is scheduled to be completed in 2024, and the aromatics conversion project will be completed in 2022.

** Two independent consortia have submitted bids for engineering, procurement and construction contracts for the construction, upgrade and expansion of the Dung Quat refinery in central Vietnam. They are a consortium of Hyundai Engineering Construction Co., Ltd. and Hyundai Engineering Co., Ltd.; and a consortium of Technip Italy, Technip Geoproduction (M) Sdn Bhd, Technip France, PetroVietnam Technical Services Corp. and Vietnam Lilama Corp.. The upgrade will increase Dung Quat's production capacity from the current 6.5 million tons/year to 8.5 million tons/year. The project will enable refiners to diversify their crude oil inputs and meet Euro-V standards for their fuels.

** Attock Refinery Limited told analysts that Pakistan's Attock Refinery plans to install hydrocracking facilities. The company officials told analysts that Attock Refinery is considering two upgrade projects, including a hydrocracking unit and continuous catalyst regeneration (CCR). After the implementation of these projects, Attock Refinery will be able to produce gasoline and diesel that meet Euro V standards, while fully converting naphtha into mogas.

** According to market news and company documents, the Pakistan National Refinery has issued shares to upgrade and expand the plant into a deep conversion refinery. Proceeds will be used to retrofit installations and increase gasoline and diesel production.

** Company officials stated that the capacity expansion project of the Gujarat refinery under the state-owned Indian Petroleum Corporation will end on September 30, 2024, one and a half years later than the previous deadline. The delay was mainly due to the re-arrangement of the project execution schedule of pending projects due to the coronavirus pandemic. The initial deadline for capacity expansion projects is 2020. The expansion plan will help West Coast refineries process cheaper heavy crude oil grades and increase profitability. Under the expansion project, the existing small-capacity atmospheric unit and vacuum unit will be replaced by a large-scale atmospheric unit (AVU) to improve the operating efficiency of the refinery. The project also includes the renovation of an existing hydrogen production unit for the production of synthesis gas and hydrogen, a new n-butanol processing unit and the renovation of a linear alkyl benzene (LAB) unit. IOC plans to increase the capacity of the Gujarat refinery from the current 275,000 barrels/day to 360,000 barrels/day by March 2023.

** The Paradip refinery owned by Indian Petroleum Corporation will use its own in-house technology to install the first stage of the grassroots needle coking unit. The proposed plant will have a production capacity of 56,000 tons/year of calcined needle coke (CNC). Currently, the country's entire needle coke demand (80-100 kilotons/year) is met through imports. The company does not plan any expansion of its Paradip refinery with a total capacity of 15 million tons per year.

** HPCL's US$3.2 billion expansion of Vizag's production capacity to 300,000 barrels per day has been completed ahead of schedule, company officials said. The expansion project was originally scheduled to be completed in July 2020, but the official did not provide a specific time for completion. The project aims to install primary processing units, such as a CDU, to replace one of the three existing CDUs, a hydrocracking unit and a naphtha isomerization unit.

** IOC plans to expand the atmospheric and vacuum units of its Barauni refinery and increase its total production capacity to 9 million tons per year by 2021.

** Reliance Industries Ltd. has been approved to increase the capacity of its export-oriented Jamnagar refinery on the west coast of India by 17% to 41 million tons (820,000 barrels per day). By 2030, RIL's goal is to increase its total refining capacity in Jamnagar (including domestic refineries) to 98.2 million tons per year. Reliance is currently 1.37 million barrels/day, of which 707,000 barrels/day is used for export and 660,000 barrels/day is used domestically. The first phase of export will increase production capacity to 820,000 barrels per day. By 2030, its goal is to increase its total production capacity to 1.96 million barrels per day.

** Indian International Petroleum Corporation plans to increase the capacity of its Panipat refinery to 25 million tons per year by 2021 to meet the growing demand for petroleum products. The refinery has a production capacity of 15 million tons per year.

** The Indian Cabinet has approved a project to expand the capacity of the Numaligarh refinery from 3 million tons/year to 9 million tons/year.

** Nayara Energy is seeking to update its environmental approvals to double the capacity of its Vadinar refinery, as it has previously been approved by Essar Oil. It had planned to double Vadinar's refining capacity to 40 million tons per year.

** IOC has signed a contract with CB&I, a provider of energy technology and infrastructure solutions, to build a residual oil upgrading facility at its Mathura refinery in northern India.

** Hengyi Industrial plans to more than double the capacity of its integrated refining and aromatics complex in Brunei from the current 160,000 barrels/day to approximately 455,000 barrels/day within three years. This expansion will increase the refinery's gasoline output by 2.55 million tons/year, diesel output by 1.94 million tons/year, jet fuel output by 1.84 million tons/year, and liquefied petroleum gas output by 190,000 tons/year. The current total output of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel at the refinery is approximately 6 million tons per year. There are also plans to increase olefin/polyolefin production capacity.

** Indonesia’s Pertamina plans to build a petrochemical plant at its Balongan refinery in West Java and will cooperate with Taiwan’s CPC on the project. The project is expected to be completed in 2026, and Pertamina will construct the project in three phases. The first phase is to increase the refining capacity from the current 125,000 barrels/day to 150,000 barrels/day by 2022. The second and third phases will increase the output of refineries, including the output of new petrochemical plants. According to the plan, Pertamina and CPC will build a naphtha cracker, which is expected to replace imports. The naphtha cracker will produce at least 1 million tons of ethylene per year. Pertamina also cooperated with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) on the Balongan refinery project.

** Hyundai Engineering Corporation won a $2.17 billion deal to upgrade the Balikpapan refinery in Indonesia. Hyundai Engineering will be "responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction of facility upgrades", which will take 53 months to complete and will increase the refinery's capacity from 260,000 barrels/day to 360,000 barrels/day. It is expected to be completed in 2023. In addition, Indonesia’s Pertamina and Mubadala signed a refinery investment principle agreement to evaluate any possibility of cooperation in the processing field, including the acceleration of Pertamina’s Balikpapan project, which is expected to require approximately US$5.5 billion in investment.

** Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina will use Honeywell's UOP technology to produce advanced biofuels at its Plaju and Cilacap refineries. Honeywell said. “Pertamina chose to work with UOP to build an undeveloped bio-refinery in Plaju and renovate its Cilacap refinery,” Honeywell said. Plaju's biorefinery will produce 20,000 barrels per day of vegetable oil and fat to produce renewable jet fuel, renewable diesel fuel and green liquefied petroleum gas at the Plaju refinery. The Cilacap refinery will be retrofitted to process 6,000 barrels of vegetable oil and fat per day to produce advanced biofuels. In addition, Pertamina will continue to transform its Cilacap refinery without Saudi Aramco, increasing its production capacity from 348,000 barrels/day to 370,000 barrels/day. According to Platts Energy Information, the company signed a major agreement on the renovation project with the Saudi oil giant in November 2015, but Aramco does not accept the asset valuation figures given by Pertamina. Pertamina now plans to find other partners to carry out the project. The project was originally expected to be completed in 2022, but it may now be postponed to 2023. Upon completion of the project, Pertamina will be able to produce an additional 80,000 barrels/day of gasoline, 60,000 barrels/day of diesel and 40,000 barrels/day of jet fuel from Cilacap. The project includes increasing the capacity of the crude oil distillation unit; increasing the capacity of the residue catalytic cracking unit from 62,000 barrels/day to 81,000 barrels/day, and adding 43,000 barrels/day of hydrocracking units.

** Due to "deteriorating market conditions" after the coronavirus pandemic, SK Energy has postponed the full operation of its newly built 40,000 barrels/day desulfurization unit. The refinery completed the mechanical construction of the vacuum residue desulfurization unit on January 31, three months ahead of the original plan, to supply IMO 2020 low-sulfur marine fuel to the market. The company's previous goal was to start commercial production at the end of March.

** At Bangchak Petroleum in Thailand, an expansion plan is underway to increase the capacity of the 120,000 barrels/day refinery to 140,000 barrels/day through the installation of continuous catalyst regeneration units. According to the expansion plan, the company will also eliminate the bottleneck of the hydrocracking unit, which can expand the refinery's capacity by 10%.

** Saudi Aramco and S-Oil signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in Onsan's US$6 billion steam cracker and olefin downstream project. The project will be completed in 2024. The project will use naphtha and tail gas to produce ethylene And other basic chemicals.

** Exxon Mobil announced the final investment decision for its Singapore complex. The project includes an expansion project designed to "convert fuel oil and other bottom-of-the-barrel crude oil products into higher-value lubricant base oils and distillates." The commissioning time is scheduled for 2023. The expansion will increase production capacity and increase the production of clean fuels with lower sulfur content by 48,000 barrels per day.

** Petron plans to expand and upgrade its Bataan refinery in Limay, increasing its production capacity by 55% to produce 75,000 barrels/day of refined products and 1 million tons/year of aromatics. There is no timetable for when the expansion will take place. The refinery's condensate and light crude oil production capacity will increase from the current 180,000 barrels/day by 100,000 barrels/day.

** Petron Corp. of the Philippines has been considering plans to more than double the capacity of its 88,000 barrels/day Port Dickson refinery in Malaysia to 178,000 barrels/day.

Introducing new and revised entries** India is committed to the timely completion of Mongolia's first oil refinery project in Dornogovi, the Ministry of Petroleum officials said. India has provided a loan of US$1 billion for the construction of the project, and the state-owned Mongolian oil refinery is scheduled to be completed in 2022. State-owned Engineer India Limited (EIL) is the main consultant for the Greenfield Refinery Project. The refinery is expected to reach 70% of installed capacity by 2024 and reach the maximum in 2026. It is operated by the state-owned Mongolian oil refinery. With the launch of the refinery, Mongolia will be able to process its own crude oil, which is about 400 kilometers away from Ulaanbaatar.

Existing entries** Pengerang Refining and Petrochemical Malaysia, also known as PRefChem, is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2021. According to Platts Energy Information at the time, the project originally scheduled to start in September has been postponed to early 2021. After a fire broke out in the diesel unit of Malaysia's PRefChem refinery (also known as RAPID) in March, all facilities were shut down. This is the second major accident in the Pengerang Complex that started construction in the third quarter of 2019. In April 2019, an explosion and fire broke out in the atmospheric residue desulfurization unit when the refinery was put into operation.

** India’s Oil and Gas Minister and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stated that India’s plan to build a 1.2 million barrels/day Ratnagiri refinery on the west coast is still facing delays due to “local issues”. The construction of the site is expected to start in 2020, but the project has stalled due to issues related to land acquisition. The location of the project has been moved once, from Ratnagiri district to Raigad district. According to industry sources, the refinery is now expected to start production in 2025.

** Chennai Petroleum Corp. Ltd's proposed 9 million tons refinery in the Cauvery Basin of South India has been approved by the Ministry of Environment team, company officials said. The refinery project has been approved by Indian Petroleum Corporation, the largest refiner in India, the parent company of CPCL. The International Olympic Committee holds 51.89% of CPCL. The proposed project will be a state-of-the-art modern oil refinery and petrochemical project, including a polypropylene plant. The refinery will have the capacity to produce about 4 million tons/year of diesel, 1.8 million tons/year of gasoline, Euro 6 and 600,000 tons/year of liquefied petroleum gas, and 300,000 tons/year of jet fuel. The refinery is designed to process 50% Basra lightweight, Basra heavy and 100% Iranian lightweight blends. CPCL currently operates two refineries in Tamil Nadu with a total production capacity of 11.5 million tons per year.

** Pak-Arab Oil Refinery Limited will start the physical engineering of its coastal refinery in the first half of 2021. The project has been postponed for nearly 13 years, industry sources said. After the project starts, the refinery is expected to be put into operation in 2025-2026, when the country's refining capacity will increase by 250,000 barrels per day. PARCO also operates a 100,000 barrel/day Central Oil Refinery in Mahmoodkot. The coastal refinery project was approved in 2007, but construction was delayed due to funding issues.

** Indonesia's Pertamina decided to postpone the construction of the 300,000 barrels/day Bontang refinery in East Kalimantan. “Bontang is still on the list, but we are currently focusing on existing refineries,” said Ignatius Tallulembang, Pertamina’s large refinery and petrochemical project director, adding that upgrading existing refineries is “our priority”. Ignatius Tallulembang said that construction has been going on, "but our partners stopped. Therefore, we hold the project when evaluating more details of oil supply and demand. If everything is clear, we will discuss with stakeholders again." The target of the proposed refinery is to produce at least 60,000 barrels/day of gasoline and 124,000 barrels/day of diesel. The products will meet Euro IV specifications, and Pertamina will give priority to domestic marketing.

** A joint venture between Rosneft and Pertamina has signed a contract with Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas to design and build an oil refining and petrochemical complex in Tuban, Indonesia, Rosneft said.

The primary processing design capacity is planned to be as high as 15 million tons/year, and the planned capacity of the petrochemical complex includes more than 1 million tons/year of ethylene and 1.3 million tons/year of aromatics.

** Sri Lanka has approved the construction of a US$20 billion oil refinery project in the port city of Hambantota. The announcement was made after the completion of a smaller oil refinery in the port supported by Oman Petroleum Corporation.

** Indian Ministry of Petroleum officials stated that Iran is still willing to invest in Chennai Petroleum's expansion project, which will build a 180,000 barrels/day oil refinery in the Cauvery Basin in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, southern India. IOC holds 51.9% of CPCL, while NIOC holds 15.4% of the shares through the Swiss subsidiary Naftiran Intertrade.

** Global trader Vitol is seeking to build a 30,000 barrel/day oil refinery in Johor, southern Malaysia. The project involved the construction of a simple refinery in Tanjung Bin, VTTI's ATB oil depot. ATB or ATT Tanjung Bin Sdn Bhd is a terminal 100% owned by VTTI. Vitol co-owns VTTI.

** Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd.'s proposal to invest US$4.05 billion to build an integrated oil refining and petrochemical facility in Balasol, India has been approved by the Orissa state government.

** Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are negotiating to develop a 200,000-300,000 barrel/day oil refinery in the Gwadar region of Balochistan for US$10 billion.

** A new HPCL project in Palmer, India will be completed in March 2023.

** India's large-scale refinery project in Maharashtra, developed by the state-owned IOC, HPCL and BPCL, will start construction around 2022-23. Source: Platts Energy Information