July 19, 2021:

The Automobile Association (AA) calls on South Africans to limit all non-essential travel as road transport comes under pressure from unrest and the spectre of fuel shortages. The Association also warns that unaudited mid-month fuel price data from the Central Energy Fund reflected a risk of substantial fuel price hikes at month-end. “Fuel prices were already trending higher before the widespread looting and unrest of the past few day. But now, the daily Rand/US dollar exchange rate has spiked from R14.35 to nearly R14.80 since 12 June. South Africa imports a lot of fuel, which will inevitably cost more in Rand terms. Meanwhile, international oil prices remain on the advance, adding further pressure,” says the AA. The mid-month data indicates that petrol is set for an increase of 87 cents a litre, diesel 58 cents and illuminating paraffin 56 cents, and the AA says it expects little respite before month-end. In a related development, South African Petroleum Refiners (SAPREF), which runs a massive refinery complex in Durban supplying 35% of South Africa’s refined fuel, has declared force majeure. “SAPREF’s declaration of force majeure means that events beyond its control – the recent lawlessness – has forced it to shut down the refinery,” the Association explains.

The AA warns that if an operational refinery were to be overrun by criminals, surrounding areas would be at great risk. “Past disasters involving refineries have polluted wide areas and claimed hundreds of lives, so SAPREF’s caution is justified. If the shutdown were to be protracted though, it could impact considerably on fuel supply to many areas, including Gauteng and other northern provinces inland,” it adds The Association advises motorists to avoid unnecessary journeys and to buy no more fuel than necessary, to preserve current stocks for essential and emergency services. “We also advise citizens to work remotely where possible, and our plea to business is to accommodate the difficulties their staff may face if mass transit is affected by fuel shortages.” The AA also adds that needless Rand weakness driven by the government’s ineffective response to the crisis would hit vulnerable citizens first and hardest. “People who use paraffin for heating, lighting and cooking are rarely in a financial position to absorb large price hikes,” the Association concludes

By South Coast Herald

July 18, 2021:

Energy and retail company Paz Oil Company Ltd. (TASE:PZOL) has failed to sell its oil refinery. The company’s board of directors has instructed its management to prepare a plan for spinning the Ashdod oil refinery from the company through the distribution of a dividend in kind or similar equipment to make the oil refinery an independent, completely separate company. “This will allow the company to focus on growth in its other core areas in line with the strategic plan established by the board in May this year, such as in retail and real estate,” Paz said in a statement. Paz is Israel’s leading fuel station and grocery store with 256 gas stations. It owns real estate, on which 106 of its service stations stand, and rights to other land. The company rents areas at its gas station locations to various tenants, such as restaurants, cafes and shops.  Paz also sells fuel and oil products directly to companies and airlines. In the past year, Paz has received non-binding offers to buy the oil refinery, which has led to large losses in recent years, but the offers were significantly below the $ 1 million value the company was aiming for, and apparently even lower than book value. of the oil refinery. In the last few months, Paz, which has a market value of 3.8 billion. NIS and no controlling shareholder, have been in a process of being sold or merged. Last week, Yosef and Shlomo Amir, controlling shareholders in the retail chain Freshmarket (TASE: FRSM), made a merger offer that would make the Amir brothers the controlling shareholders in Paz. Under the proposal, Freshmarket would be merged into Paz and its shareholders would receive 36% of the shares in Paz. In addition, the shareholders of Freshmarket will have the right to purchase 9% of the shares in Paz (fully diluted after the merger) at a price to be agreed between the parties, but not higher than the price of the merger. Freshmarket has a market value of NIS 1.8 million. The merger would create a company of 5.6 billion. NIS.

Freshmarket made its offer one day after Shikun & Binui Holdings Ltd. (TASE: SKBN) made an offer to merge between Paz and its subsidiary Shikun & Binui Energy in return for 48% of the shares in Paz (after the merger). This offer estimates the merged company at DKK 7.3 billion. NIS and Shikun & Binui Energy themselves to 3.55 billion.

By da.globes.co.il

July 18, 2021:

Pakistan’s dying petroleum oil refineries are in the planning phase or at an advanced stage of heavy investment-led upgrades to remain in business, as almost all of them are operating at half of their installed capacity due to production of out-of-demand products like furnace oil. Output of the outdated product sometimes spills over the storage capacity and hinders manufacturing of co-products in demand like petrol and diesel from the crude oil. Owing to the emergence of gas crisis time and again in the country for the past couple of years, the government agreed to lift the ban on use of furnace oil to produce electricity on and off. Furnace oil is among the most expensive options to produce power. Besides, its use causes higher pollution compared to the low-priced gas and becomes a concern of climate change. The up-gradation of refineries, including replacing lower grade petrol and diesel with the advanced ones Euro-5 and Euro-6, would substantially reduce the country’s reliance on import of refined oil products and return refineries to profit by 2025-27. “Byco is investing $800 million…to add different types of 14 plants to convert the out-of-demand furnace oil into advanced quality Euro-5 and Euro-6 petrol and diesel,” Byco Petroleum Chairman Mohammad Wasi Khan said while talking to a group of journalists.

“We will stand fully upgraded over the next three to four years. As per our plans, we are to implement up-gradation plan by the year 2025,” he said. Byco is the single largest oil refinery in Pakistan. It has an installed capacity to process 155,000 barrel per day of crude oil into a range of refined products like petrol, diesel, jet oil, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). “At present, Byco is processing 50,000-60,000 barrels per day, meaning it is operating at 35-40% of the installed capacity,” Khan said. “The increase in use of the installed capacity surges stock of unwanted furnace oil…since setting up of gas-fired power plant sometimes around 2017-18 in the country.” Total demand for furnace oil has dropped to 2-2.5 million tons per year in the country from around nine million tons till 2017-18. “The government’s decision to move on gas-based power plants was abrupt,” he said. There are five major oil refineries that have a combined installed capacity of slightly over 417,000 barrel per day in Pakistan. The other four refineries are Attock Refinery Limited (ARL), National Refinery Limited (NRL), Pak Arab Refinery (Parco), and Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL). All the refineries are operating at around half of their installed capacity these days to cope with furnace oil production.

The government has given them a deadline to submit their respective up-gradation plans by December 2021 under the recently announced new oil refinery policy. The policy gives them a number of incentives including five-year tax holidays on import of crude oil, incentive in their products prices through tariff protection, which will earn them additional revenue to invest, upgrade and remain in the business. They will be required some five-year to fully implement the plans after committing revival plans, meaning they would get fully upgraded by the years 2026-27. The low output at domestic refineries has prompted the government and oil marketing companies (OMCs) like Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and others in the private sector to meet local demand of oil products through imports. The country is meeting some 70% demand of petrol and some 50-60% demand of diesel through imports these days. The up-gradation would cut import of refined products substantially and save net $5-6 per barrel on import substitution at local refineries. Pakistan has imported 12.56 million ton of refined petroleum products at the landed cost of $4.43 billion and imported almost eight million ton crude oil for $2.72 billion in the first 11 months (Jul-May) of the previous fiscal year 2021, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). “Byco was the first refinery to react to the furnace oil supply gluts. We prepared the up-gradation plan in 2017 and officially announced in 2020. Right now, we are in the implementing phase,” said the Byco chairman.

“We are selling some 50-70% of our refined products through our marketing arm these days. We have some 400 petrol pumps, out of the total 10,000 pumps belonging to all OMCs across the country.” Besides, the vertically integrated petroleum conglomerate operates a floating jetty called single point mooring (SPM) in deep sea at Port Qasim. Byco Petroleum has changed its name to Cinergyco PK Limited after change of management of their off-shore investors from the troubled Abraaj Group to IGCF Oil and Gas, Mauritius.

By The Exress Tribune

July 17, 2021:

A Wood River man has filed suit alleging he developed cancer because of benzene released by a number of Riverbend refineries. In a civil suit filed Friday in Madison County court, Justin Sandbach, 31, of Wood River, alleges he developed Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma) as a result of benzene released from oil refineries currently or formerly owned by Shell Oil Company, Phillips 66, BP Products and others in and around Roxana, Wood River and Hartford — including the Wood River Refinery in Roxana. The suit seeks damages of more than $50,000 from Shell, Phillips 66, ConocoPhillips, BP Product North America and other oil companies. Sandbach is represented by Christopher Dysart from The Dysart Law Firm, P.C. of St. Louis. The suit states that from 1989 to 2010 Sandbach lived at the same location where another person had contracted a similar type of cancer a decade earlier. Sandbach graduated from Roxana High School in 2007. His suit alleges that during the same time he attended Roxana schools other students and a grade school principal also contracted similar types of cancer. The suit alleges the refineries manufactured, stored and transported benzene and other toxic chemicals, which leaked into the air and groundwater where Sandbach lived and went to school, as well as in Wood River and Hartford.Sandbach’s suit alleges the oil companies improperly maintained their petroleum and benzene manufacturing and storage facilities and their gasoline and benzene pipelines to prevent the leaking or release of toxic chemicals. It also alleges the companies failed to properly clean up or address spills or leaks of benzene and petrochemicals and petroleum containing benzene. The suit alleges the U.S. and Illinois Protection Agencies and the Illinois Department of Public Health have determined spills caused by the oil companies have resulted in an underground plume of at least 4 million gallons of gasoline and other petroleum products underneath Hartford.

The suit also alleges that:

• In September 1998 Shell agreed to pay the federal government $11.5 million for more than 100 environmental violations at its Wood River Refinery.

• In 2018 Phillips 66 paid $10.8 million in response by a lawsuit by the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Illinois Attorney General alleging the Wood River Refinery had leaking valves and pumps the emitted dangerous chemicals including benzene from 14 locations.

• The petroleum companies knew about the dangers of benzene causing cancer for decades but have “publicly minimized and hidden” the dangers. The suit alleges scientists began raising concerns about benzene exposure in the early 1900s and a 1948 American Petroleum Institute publication stating “the only safe level of benzene exposure is zero.”

• In and around 1979 Shell compiled a list of cancer cases of its past employees and its Wood River Refinery had the largest number of cancer deaths in the U.S.

• In September 1983, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health criticized a Shell employee communication for “not telling its employees the truth about the cancer risk at the Wood River Refinery.”

• Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Texaco and Shell Chemical LP and the American Petroleum Institute conspired to suppress knowledge of the hazards of benzene and benzene- containing materials and products.

Sandbach’s suit alleges that, because of his lymphoma, he has incurred lost wages, has a shortened life expectancy, has suffered mental anguish, has incurred and will incur medical bills and will have to undergo lifelong medical treatment.

By The Telegrah

July 16, 2021:

Chemical emissions from the LyondellBasell Refinery are the source of a pungent smell that has been bothering residents of Galena Park since Wednesday night, according to Harris County Pollution Control Services. PCS said through its air monitoring in the area it has identified three chemicals that can cause irritation to the respiratory and digestive systems: carbon disulfide, dimethyl disulfide and methyl ethyl disulfide. “Sensitive populations should limit outdoor time and use face coverings,” PCS said in a statement. PCS said the cause of the odor has been capped and the smell should dissipate by later this evening. Since Wednesday night, residents have been reporting headaches and nausea, with some describing it as a garlic-like, chemical smell. Diana Gonzalez is among those who said the smell has been making her nauseous. “The smell just got worse and worse. Yesterday was horrendous,” she said. “It was bad — to the point where I almost couldn’t handle it.” Gonzalez said she tried everything she could think of to alleviate the odor: spraying Febreeze, putting Vapor Rub on her nose and turning off her window AC unit. “A lot of us have been in Galena Park since we were born, and so we’ve had odors, but this is extreme,” she said.

Juan Flores, who lives in Galena Park and works with Air Alliance Houston, said he had a sore throat Thursday when the smell was strongest. "What’s happened in the last 48 hours has just been beyond anything I’ve experienced before. It’s just such a strong odor," he said. "In some cases, it was so strong it felt like the source of it was my backyard." In a statement to Houston Public Media, LyondellBasell said the odor was coming from a leak in the roof of one of their storage tanks that failed due to the heavy rains in the area. “We understand that the material is odorous and community members may be able to detect a slight odor. Air monitoring demonstrated no levels of concern for the community,” the company said in a statement. During Hurricane Harvey, at least 15 storage tank roofs failed from the heavy rainfall — and researchers warn that hundreds more are vulnerable. A bill passed this legislative session will create some tougher standards for these storage tanks, though some advocates say it still doesn’t go far enough, particularly in addressing the impact of heavy rainfall on the tanks.

By Housing Public Media