Page 5 - AsianOil Week 48 2021

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The deal had been expected to take the form with Saudi Aramco & SABIC for investments in
of an all-stock deal and would have given Ara- Saudi Arabia”.
mco a minority stake in Reliance’s 1.82mn bar- Meanwhile, Aramco signed a memorandum
rel per day (bpd) refining slate, which includes of understanding (MoU) to explore potential
the world’s largest refining complex at Jamna- supply deals with Oil and Natural Gas Corp.
gar and another sizeable facility located within (ONGC) that would likely give it a foothold in
the Jamnagar Special Economic Zone, as well the Indian company’s sizeable refining and pet-
as its 38.4mn tonne per year (tpy) petrochemi- rochemicals slate across the states of Gujarat and
cals capacity. This would add 364,000 bpd and Karnataka.
7.7mn tpy to the company’s net global refining
and petchem capacities. Malaysia update
Under the deal, the Saudi firm was Speaking to CNBC Arabia, Nasser provided an
expected to provide around 500,000 bpd of update on the company’s Pengerang Petrochemical
crude to the facilities. Co. (PRefChem) project in Malaysia in a 50:50 joint
However, the announcement by Reli- venture (JV) with state-owned Petronas.
ance illustrated the company’s intention to He said that work was anticipated to resume
move towards renewables and noted that by the end of the year on the 300,000 bpd refin-
the company no longer intended to spin ery, on which progress has been slowed by sev-
off the O2C division. eral accidents since a $7bn investment was made
It did note, though, that the companies in 2018.
remained “deeply committed to creating a win- Once the facility is fully commissioned and
win partnership and will make future disclosures Aramco’s Red Sea refinery at Jazan ramps up
as appropriate”, adding that it would continue to to its 400,000 bpd capacity, Aramco will have a
be Aramco’s “preferred partner for investments theoretical global refining capacity of 7.1mn bpd
in the private sector in India and will collaborate (3.49mn bpd net).™

India to take 51% in pipeline operator

PIPELINES & THE Indian government is reportedly planning The Indian cabinet still needs to sign off on
TRANSPORT to take a majority stake in a proposed new com- the plans, but once its approval has been secured
pany that will operate all of the country’s com- then the pipeline operator is expected to become
mon carrier natural gas pipelines. operational within 12 months, the Economic
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Times’ sources said.
has proposed taking 51% of the company, local The government hopes that by ending GAIL’s
financial daily the Economic Times quoted gas pipeline dominance it will be able to create a
unnamed sources as saying on December 1. dynamic gas market ahead of a projected tripling
The remaining 49% will be split equally of demand for the fuel by the end of the decade.
between state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. GAIL estimated last week that consumption
(ONGC), Indian Oil Corp. (IOC), GAIL (India), would climb to as much as 550mn cubic metres
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) per day by 2020 from about 174 mcm per day at
and Engineers India. present.
Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman The country’s pledge to reach net-zero carbon
first flagged up the country’s plans for the inde- emissions by 2070 will drive a surge in demand
pendent pipeline operator in February during for cleaner-burning fuels, GAIL (India) market-
the annual budget. This came after the govern- ing director E S Ranganathan said at an industry
ment walked back earlier plans to break apart gas event on November 25.
marketer and pipeline operator GAIL. He added: “We now have a definitive policy
The oil ministry released a consultation direction towards [the] phasing down of coal
draft in June in which it said the new pipeline from primary energy mix, with our targets care-
operator would be able to own and operate fully calibrated to account for India’s energy
pipelines but would not be allowed to market needs. Against this background, gas along with
gas. The operator will charge for access to its derived products such as blue hydrogen and
network, and will provide information to the ammonia will have a greater role to play in start-
Indian Gas Exchange (IGX) about available ing down the slope from peak emissions to net-
common carrier capacity. zero emissions.”™

Week 48 03•December•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P5