Page 7 - AsianOil Week 31 2021

AsianOil SOUTH ASIA AsianOil

and LPG wholesaler Manas Agro Industries and imports, and it will be hard for them to get the
Infrastructure. entire value chain in place from fuel import to
Successful applicants for a retail licence dispensation point,” B S Kanth told Business
are required have to a minimum net worth of Standard in mid-July.
INR2.5bn ($33.7mn), with this increasing to There is growing interest in the country’s
INR5bn ($67.5mn) for joint retail and wholesale retail market, which has long been dominated
licence applications. Retail licence winners are by the country’s state-run oil companies, help
also required to set up at least 100 stations within along by the rebound in Indian fuel demand
the first five years of operation. from last year’s coronavirus (COVID-19)
A former IOC oil marketing director has, inspired lows.
however, warned that companies lacking down- IOC saw its profit climb by more than 200%
stream integration may end up struggling to year on year in the second quarter to INR59.41bn
compete. owing to improved refinery margins.
“Essentially, it is difficult for these new enti- “The gross refining margin during the first
ties to work on a standalone basis, they will need quarter of [financial year] 2021-2022 is $6.58
back-end support from some company already per barrel as compared to $1.98 per barrel in
having infrastructure. Since they are not into [the] corresponding quarter of previous finan-
crude oil refining, they will have to depend on cial year,” Vaidya said in a company statement.™

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Petrofac starts up Malaysian oilfield

PROJECTS & INTERNATIONAL service provider Petrofac
COMPANIES has started up a new shallow-water oilfield in
Malaysia, according to state-owned Petronas.
The state major said on July 30 that the field,
which is located in Block PM304, delivered first
oil on June 23.
The service provider’s local arm, Petrofac
(Malaysia), operates the field in partnership
with Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. Petronas’ senior vice-president of domestic
(KUFPEC) and Petronas Carigali. petroleum management, Mohamed Firouz Asnan,
Petrofac owns a 30% stake in the block, which said: “East Cendor’s first oil success proves that
is located around 140 km from the Peninsular the Malay Basin is by no means a mature hydro-
Malaysian coastline in 70 metres of water. The carbon province. Block PM304 started as a small
service provider took over PM304’s develop- field development with first production from the
ment in 2004, when it acquired the asset from Cendor field back in 2006. However, the total oil-
Amerada Hess. in-place (OIP) volume grew through continuous
East Cendor is the fourth field to come on efforts in appraising the block’s potential, which
stream in PM304, following the successful devel- turned out to be large.”
opment of Cendor, West Desaru and Irama. The He added that the field’s success should lead
project comprises a single wellhead platform to further development efforts within PM304.
(WHP) that is tied back to the existing Cendor The development’s success is good news for
floating production, storage and offloading Petrofac, which had to declare a force majeure at
(FSPO) vessel via a 6.3-km pipeline. the Cendor terminal in December 2020. Petro-
Petronas said the field’s eventual peak pro- nas revealed at the start of the year that a “techni-
duction would top 7,000 barrels per day (bpd), cal malfunction” had left the terminal operating
further extending the block’s economic life. at partial capacity.™

Week 31 05•August•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7