June 10, 2012:

Firefighters rushed to the area of the Tesoro Corp. crude oil refinery early Saturday as flames and thick smoke filled Salt Lake City’s northern dawn horizon. Salt Lake City Fire Department spokesman Jasen Asay said the three-alarm fire, spotted just before 6 a.m. in a salvage yard field adjacent and east of Tesoro property, was fought by about 60 firefighters and numerous engines. By 8 a.m., the flames had been extinguished.  "The fire was not on Tesoro’s property itself but in a two-acre field that was a salvage yard. There were old tires, wood pallets, wood piles, some trees and a shed that burned," Asay said. "Tesoro did assist Salt Lake City firefighters with its own engine, but the flames never burned into the refinery property." However, flames did cause mostly exterior damage to rear, patio and office areas of the nearby Garage Bar. Firefighters removed computers and file cabinets to save them from being damaged as they fought that portion of the blaze, which was out within an hour of their arrival. The bar’s owners expected to be closed for at least two weeks, Asay said.

Investigators were on scene Saturday to determine the cause of the fire. A contingent of firefighters also remained through the afternoon to guard against any hot spots reigniting, Asay said. Tesoro, based in San Antonio, Texas, processes more than 60,000 barrels per day at the plant at 1200 N. Beck St. It receives shipments of crude oil from eastern Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Canada to process into gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, heavy fuel oils and liquefied petroleum gas.  Through a network of terminals and pipelines, those products are then distributed to markets in Utah, Idaho, eastern Washington, Nevada and Wyoming. The refinery also supplies jet fuel to the Salt Lake City airport.

By The Salt Lake Tribune

June 10, 2012:

Citadel Capital SAE (CCAP), an Egyptian private equity firm, is poised for the biggest advance in five weeks after signing a renewal agreement for a $2.6 billion loan for an oil refinery.  Shares of the Cairo-based company climbed 3.1 percent to 2.65 Egyptian pounds at 2:10 p.m. in Cairo, heading for the biggest daily increase since May 6. Egypt’s benchmark EGX30 Index (EGX30) fell 0.3 percent.  Citadel Capital met with lenders and Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri on June 7 to discuss the project, it said today in a filing to the Egyptian bourse. Financing for the $3.7 billion refinery is expected to close “soon,” Citadel said.

 By Bloomberg

June 10, 2012:

LABOUR Leader of Thurrock Council John Kent is calling on the government to listen to the highly skilled workforce, Unite and the local community and intervene to support the retention of the Coryton refinery.  He said: “Since January Thurrock Council and I have played by the rules. We have followed the administrators’ wishes because they told us they were confident of finding a buyer for the refinery and saving all the jobs.   “But time is running out. Following the administrators’ disappointing statement in May, we had our first meeting of the Task Group days later. We were led to believe there would be ministerial support and that a government minister would be present, or at least on the end of a telephone. “But no. Apparently the Coryton situation doesn’t merit any interest among the elected ministers and to me that is not good enough. “I believe that while the council’s ability to influence the final outcome remains limited, we must continue to prepare for the worst to ensure workers are not left hanging without hope.

“That is why it is vital we have an Economic Impact Assessment to make sure we have clear evidence of the likely impact of closure – and an Environmental Impact Assessment to help frame any possible future options for the site, should the refinery close. “At the same time we must point out how the government’s options are more wide ranging. “I understand that an injection of between 100 and 165 million American dollars would ensure the refinery could stay open. I have also been told closure of the refinery, even keeping it as a storage facility, would cost the local and national economies more than £100 million. He said: “The government claims it is against EU rules for them to intervene, but that hasn’t stopped the French from doing exactly that.“The government claims it is against EU rules for them to intervene, but that didn’t stop a £20 billion intervention in the Royal Bank of Scotland … and others, saving their banker friends.

“Why not do it here? It can be done, just find a way, or perhaps they don’t have any oil refinery worker friends.” Cllr Kent said: “I fear the government’s strict adherence to political dogma is being played out at the cost of Thurrock families’ lives, but I am not asking for compassion, I am asking for the government to show some common sense. “The longer this goes on the more difficult the investment case becomes so I urge government to seriously reconsider their position and put Britain’s economy and British jobs first.”

By YOURTHURROCK

June 10, 2012:

NEW DELHI: State-owned ONGC is interested in acquiring West Bengal government's stake in ailing Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL), a top company official said. "We have expressed the desire to take controlling stake in Haldia Petrochemical through our subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL)," he said.  The company has sought an audience with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to make a presentation on its HPL plans. "MRPL is setting up a petrochemical plant and HPL has great synergy with its plans," he said. The company plans to supply naphtha - feedstock for petrochemicals - to HPL, he said. West Bengal government has expressed intention to offload its 43 per cent stake in the joint sector company.

"MRPL is being expanded to 21 million tons from 15 million tonnes... this will produce naphtha which can be used as feedstock in the petrochemical plant," the official said. HPL, whose losses over the past years have eroded nearly half of its networth, currently imports bulk of its naphtha requirements. The state government and The Chatterjee Group, which is equal promoter in HPL, are locked in dispute over control of the petrochemical giant. State-owned Indian Oil Corp ( IOC) owns nine per cent stake in HPL.

By The Economic Times

June 10, 2012:

BEIJING, June 10 (Reuters) - China's implied oil demand inched up 0.4 percent in May year-on-year, and rose marginally from April, when the figure fell for the first time in more than three years.The world's second-largest oil user burned about 9.344 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) last month, among the lowest rates since last October, Reuters calculations based on preliminary government data showed on Sunday. Despite slowing growth, China is still expected to make up nearly half of global incremental demand in 2012, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Implied demand is calculated by adding crude oil throughput and net imports of refined oil products, but it omits stocks changes which are seldom disclosed by the government. The daily rate compared to 9.3 million bpd in April and 9.31 million bpd in May 2011, Reuters figures showed.

The relatively weak May demand figure was in part a result of lacklustre refinery operations, which posted their second straight month of year-on-year decline at 9.03 million bpd, as high crude cost and a cooling economy weighed on fuel use. "For both April and May we reported negative growth in our sales of diesel oil, as industrial fuel consumptions declined," said a fuel marketing official with state-run Sinopec Corp , Asia's largest refiner. In its May report, the IEA forecast China's oil demand would grow 4.1 percent, or 390,000 bpd, this year, which would mean China still accounting for nearly half of global incremental demand in 2012.

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Preliminary commodity trade data:

China's oil demand coverage: O/CNDEMAND

Refinery poll: O/CNREFINERY-POLL

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China made a surprise interest rates cut on Thursday, a sign that Beijing was ready to use more aggressive measures to head off a sharper slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.  The deluge of economic data released over the weekend also showed China's inflation dipped to a two-year low in May while economic activity remained weak, reinforcing expectation that further policy easing could be in the pipeline. A further easing in monetary supply, plus seasonal factors such as peak power use in summer as well as the government's two fuel price cuts in just over one month, may lend support to fuel consumption. Chinese refineries will increase crude oil processing in June, gaining for a second month after runs sank to a 34-month low in April, a Reuters poll showed.

"Demand should recover somehow in June, as power shortage could be bigger (than last year) and our fuel sales should also rebound as it's time for buyers to replenish stocks after the two pump price cuts," said the Sinopec official.

By Reuters