Page 14 - DMEA Week 11 2023

DMEA NEWS IN BRIEF DMEA

COMPANIES Trinity Energy”. rebound this year.
The statement said countries in need “will KPC has informed some buyers that
AEC calls Glencore into not prosper without domestic players who Kuwait Export Blend crude supply may be
reduced under new annual contracts starting
are willing to solve their unique challenges”.
question over illicit South Trinity has sponsored the South Sudan Oil & in April, sources at two Indian refiners and
Power 2022 conference, put on by the AEC’s
one Japanese refiner told Reuters.
Sudan business affiliate Energy Capital & Power. will reduce its yearly oil purchase from
Indian Oil Corp, the country’s top refiner,
In particular, the AEC raised concerns
The African Energy Chamber (AEC) has around Glencore’s role. “The Sentry did not go Kuwait by 20%, or 20,000 bpd, starting in
rejected recent accusations around Trinity after Glencore. The Sentry chose to go after an April, according to one of the persons with
Energy in South Sudan. The allegations were African company that has created jobs, driven knowledge of the situation.
unfounded and also, it said, had underplayed economic growth and acted properly. We The second Indian refining source said
criticism of global trader Glencore. know why. Trinity Energy is daring to belong Kuwait has also approached his firm asking
The Sentry published a report in February in an industry where it is not supposed to be them to take less oil under next fiscal year’s
saying deals by Trinity in South Sudan a leader.” term contract from April.
involved “illicit business practices, including A number of governments fined Glencore KPC did not respond to a request for
bribery, tax evasion and trade-based money recently fined $1.5bn for various corruption comment.
laundering”. offences, the statement continued. The Kuwait has started up the second phase of
Trinity is based in South Sudan. In 2018, trader has not yet responded to a request for the Al Zour refinery, Waleed Al-Badr, chief
the company struck a deal for financing with comment. executive of Kuwait Integrated Petroleum
Afreximbank to purchase petrol and diesel to Glencore, flew in $800,000 of cash to South Industries Company, a subsidiary of Kuwait
supply South Sudan. As part of Trinity’s deal Sudan by private jet, claiming the money was Petroleum Corporation, said last week.
it also secured preferential access to crude oil for opening an office in 2011. The money went The 615,000 barrel-per-day (bpd)
cargoes from South Sudan. to government officials. refinery has three CDUs with equal capacity.
Trinity sold its crude oil on to Glencore. Afreximbank carried out due diligence on Consultancy FGE expects a third crude
The Sentry based its three-year Trinity, AEC said, with the company meeting distillation unit at Al Zour to come online by
investigation on interviews with Trinity’s every standard. August.
former finance officer, Biswick Kaswaswa. ENERGY VOICE The Japanese refining source did not
The report said Kaswaswa had left Trinity disclose how much volume KPC was looking
in October 2018, leaving the country for to cut, but added that KPC has also contacted
Rwanda. REFINING other refineries in Japan to negotiate supply
Rwanda then extradited the official back reductions.
to South Sudan, where he was “imprisoned Kuwait to cut crude to Asian To make up for less oil from Kuwait, India’s
for 17 months, threatened, and tortured”, The IOC has increased its term crude volume with
Sentry report said. refiners as Al Zour ramps up Iraq’s Oil Marketing Company (SOMO) by
The report said Trinity had spent millions 20,000 bpd, the first source said.
of dollars on “facilitation” for the Afreximbank Kuwait has asked some Asian refiners to take IOC would be lifting 210,000 bpd oil from
deal to a government committee. It also less oil under their annual deals as the OPEC Iraq in 2023 compared with 190,000 bpd in
claimed that, rather than converting its US producer hopes to start full-scale operations 2022, he said.
dollar payments from Glencore into South at its Al Zour refinery later this year, three Iraq’s SOMO and IOC did not respond to a
Sudanese pounds legitimately, the company refining sources familiar with the matter said. request for comment.
illegally used the black market. Lower supplies from Kuwait could tighten Annual crude sales contracts between Iraq,
The AEC raised concerns into The Sentry’s Middle East supplies to Asia and support the largest crude supplier to India, and most
investigation. The report was “misleading, prices especially as demand from China, Indian refiners start from January.
disrespectful, and unfair to South Sudan and world’s top crude importer, is expected to REUTERS
Integration plans for

Isfahan refinery

Iran’s Isfahan Oil Refinery in the central
Isfahan Province has launched development
plans to turn into a petro-refinery holding
company and one of the plans is to become a
major propylene producer in three years, the
company’s managing director said.
“The goal will be achieved by constructing
a residue fluid catalytic cracking [RFCC] unit,
and it is expected to produce 600,000 tonnes
of propylene in 2026,” Mohsen Qadiri was also
quoted as saying by the Energy Today website.
Propylene is a colorless gas with a naturally

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