March 9, 2020:

The Canada-based owner-operator of a Denver, Colo.-area oil refinery will pay $9 million to settle air quality violations dating to 2017, state officials announced Friday. The settlement with Calgary-based Suncor Energy is the biggest leveled by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to resolve air pollution violations. The Colorado Sun reports the settlement was announced by John Putnam, the agency’s environmental director, at a news conference.

Suncor’s Commerce City refinery produces about a third of gasoline used by motor vehicles in Colorado and most of the jet fuel used at Denver International Airport. It processes about 98,000 barrels of oil daily, most of that from drillers along Colorado’s Front Range. The complex also makes asphalt from heavier crude imported from Canada. On Dec. 11, the refinery released an ashy substance that blanketed adjacent neighborhoods. Suncor called the clay-like material catalyst and said it wasn’t hazardous. The settlement also concerns two incidents that occurred between July 2017 and June 2019. Suncor emitted volatile organic compounds exceeding a permit, including sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen cyanide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and particulate matter, the health department said. “We can do better, and we will do better,” Donald Austin, vice president for Suncor’s Commerce City refinery, told the Sun.

By Associated Press

March 9, 2020:

The company said in a news release that the process may take months and may not even result in a sale. The Skagit Valley Herald reports that Shell is seeking a buyer for two U.S. refineries, one in Anacortes and another in Alabama. If it doesn’t sell, Shell says they plan to continue operations there. The refinery is one of Skagit County’s largest employers and its single largest taxpayer.

By kgmi.com

March 9, 2020:

At least four Asian refiners, including India’s HPCL and BPCL, plan to maximise purchases of April-loading Middle East crude after Saudi Arabia drastically cut its prices for term contract buyers, four sources at the refiners told Reuters on Monday.  State oil giant Saudi Aramco, the world’s top oil exporter, on Saturday cut its selling price for Arab Light crude oil to Asia for April to a discount of $3.10 to the Oman/Dubai average, down $6 a barrel from the March price - its biggest-ever month-on-month price drop.  The sources said they were still waiting for other Middle East producers such as Kuwait and Iraq to issue their official selling prices (OSPs), which are due by the 10th of each month.  The other Middle East producers are expected to cut their April crude OSPs to follow the trend set by Saudi Arabia, de facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). 

The four buyers said their refineries are looking to buy as much bargain-priced crude as possible under their long-term contracts with the Middle East producers, even as some Asian refineries have reduced crude throughput levels due to seasonal plant maintenance and the coronavirus outbreak that has slashed global fuel demand. “In Middle Eastern crude (prices), definitely there will be substantial softness, we will try to maximize to the extent possible,” said M.K. Surana, chairman of India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL).  Two of the four refinery sources said they will seek the maximum amount of crude they can take in April from Saudi Arabia due to the deeply discounted OSPs. 

The current contango market structure - with prices in the near term lower than in future months - is also prompting buyers to put extra crude into land and floating storage, they said.  One of the two sources said his refinery is seeking an additional 2 million barrels for April loading, on top of the maximum amount it normally takes under its long-term contract with Saudi Arabia. The plan is to store that crude in a floating tank, he said.  Saudi Arabia has told some buyers it could “accommodate customers’ needs” for April-loading crude, said the second refinery source that is seeking to maximise Saudi crude purchases. 

“OPEC has extra production capacity. So does Russia. Now it’s a price war,” he added.  A fifth source, an official at a crude oil procurement team at a Japanese refiner, said it is mulling the possibility of increasing imports from Saudi Arabia from May give the price reduction. The refinery had already fixed its April lifting plan and has limited storage capacity.  Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp may also look at buying more spot volumes while increasing its term nomination, its spokesman KY Lin told Reuters. “This is a limited window of opportunity to tap the market for Middle Eastern oil, as Brent-linked crudes are still costlier compared to Dubai-linked,” said R. Ramachandran, head of refineries at Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL).  “Gradually the gap will narrow as Dubai will drag down other benchmarks as well,” he said.

By Reuters

March 8, 2020:

DHUBRI: Executive Director and Refinery Head of Bongaigaon Refinery (BGR), IOCL, Amarendra Kalita said that soon the industrial scenario of this part of Assam would witness a sea change following the expansion of important production units in the refinery. Kalita said this while interacting with prominent media persons of lower Assam districts on the sidelines of power-point projection and interpretation at Champa Club auditorium recently. With new  Indmax project commissioning, crude oil refining capacity would be increased to 2.7 MMTPA from the existing capacity of 2.35 MMTPA, Kalita added.

Kalita said that BGR was the 9th refinery of Indian Oil and also the only one operating in the lower Assam region. It has been serving the energy need of the State and the nation as a whole for nearly 50 years. He added that as India was going to BS-VI from BS-IV, Team BGR was cruising ahead for the timely completion of the BS-VI Project. As per Auto Fuel Quality Vision policy, 2025 and declaration of the Government of India on January 6, 2016, it was proposed to implement BS-VI grade fuel in the entire country with effect from April 1, 2020, Kalita said.

When asked about the activities under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Kalita spoke about the social welfare activities carried out in the past few years and also informed about the ongoing future projects. He added that Bongaigaon Refinery successfully combined its corporate social responsibility agenda with its business offerings, meeting the energy needs of the people of Lower Assam.  Bongaigaon Refinery has been partnering communities in which it operates by supporting innumerable initiatives connected with health, family welfare, education, environment protection, provision of potable water, sanitation and empowerment of women and other marginalized groups. Bongaigaon Refinery is actively involved in the Swachha Bharat Abhiyan launched by the Government of India by building toilets in schools in two districts, namely Bongaigaon and Chirang, he further informed.

Kalita, while pointing out some major projects implemented in the meantime, said that there had been a consistent visible impact on nearby communities by adopting new initiatives on cleanliness. CSR projects included support to BGR HS School, provision of free medical services through Indian Oil Chikitsa Seva Kendra at Kukurmari and through mobile medical units, drinking water projects in villages in the Indo-Bhutan border, renovation of schools in the neighborhood and also providing support to aspirational districts (as identified by Niti Aayog) of Barpeta and Goalpara, the Executive Director said.

By sentinelassam.com

March 8, 2020:

As per the bidding criteria, the lead member of the consortium must hold 40 per cent stake and others must have a minimum networth of USD 1 billion. In the country’s biggest ever privatisation drive, the government on Saturday invited bids for sale of its entire 52.98 per cent stake in India’s second biggest oil refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL).  Expressions of interest for the strategic sale of BPCL have been invited by May 2, as per the bid document by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM). “The Government of India is proposing strategic disinvestment of its entire shareholding in BPCL comprising of 114.91 crore equity shares, which constitutes 52.98% of BPCL’s equity share capital along with transfer of management control to a strategic buyer (except BPCL’s equity shareholding of 61.65% in Numaligarh Refinery Limited),” it said. 

NRL stake will be sold to a state-owned oil and gas firm.  The bidding will be a two-stage affair, with qualified bidders in the first expression of interest (EoI) phase being asked to make a financial bid in the second round. PSUs “are not eligible to participate” in the privatisation, the offer document said.  Any private company having a networth of USD 10 billion is eligible for bidding and consortium of no more than four firms will be allowed to bid, it said.  As per the bidding criteria, the lead member of the consortium must hold 40 per cent stake and others must have a minimum networth of USD 1 billion.  Changes in consortium are allowed within 45 days but the lead member cannot be changed, it added.  BPCL will give buyers ready access to 14 per cent of India’s oil refining capacity and about one-fourth of the fuel market share in the world’s fastest-growing energy market. BPCL has a market capitalisation of about Rs 87,388 crore and the government stake at current prices is worth about Rs 46,000 crore. 

The successful bidder will also have to make an open offer to other shareholders for acquiring another 26 per cent at the same price.  Privatisation of BPCL is essential for meeting the record Rs 2.1 lakh crore target Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has set from disinvestment proceeds in the Budget for 2020-21. BPCL operates four refineries in Mumbai (Maharashtra), Kochi (Kerala), Bina (Madhya Pradesh) and Numaligarh (Assam) with a combined capacity of 38.3 million tonnes per annum, which is 15 per cent of India’s total refining capacity of 249.4 million tonnes. 

While the Numaligarh refinery will be carved out of BPCL and sold to a PSU, the new buyer of the company will get 35.3 million tonnes of refining capacity.  BPCL also owns 15,177 petrol pumps and 6,011 LPG distributor agencies in the country. Besides, it has 51 LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) bottling plants.  The company distributes 21 per cent of petroleum products consumed in the country by volume as of March this year and has more than a fifth of the 250 aviation fuel stations in the country.  The government has appointed Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP as its transaction advisor for the strategic disinvestment process.

By PTI