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In other news, Mele Kyari, the group managing rates were not expected to return to pre-pan-
director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. demic levels in the near future.
(NNPC), remains concerned about the high cost The Indian government is struggling to get
of producing oil in his country. He urged domes- the economy back up and running after failing to
tic operators to invest in the capacities of the local control a second wake of infections. Oxford Eco-
workforce, saying they would not have to pay such nomics warned last week that economic growth
high rates to expatriates if they could hire well- could stall towards the end of the financial year,
trained Nigerian nationals instead. after New Delhi’s bid to reopen the economy in
June floundered. While the economy may enjoy
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping a bump from the central government’s relaxation
Africa’s oil and gas sector then please click here for of quarantine, the global forecasting firm warned
NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor . that short-term outlook had “turned more wor-
risome” and that growth was projected to lose
Asia: IOC profits halved after oil collapse momentum by the end of the year.
State-run Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) has announced
an almost 50% drop in its net profit for the first If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
quarter of financial year 2020-2021. Asia’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
The company said on July 31 that its net NewsBase’s AsianOil Monitor .
profit for the April-June period slid 47% year
on year to INR19.11bn ($254.1bn), compared DMEA: OMV’s petchem push
to INR35.96bn ($478.1mn) a year earlier. The Austrian oil firm OMV plans to raise €1.5bn
company attributed the weaker performance ($1.8bn) from a bond sale sometime within the
to inventory losses relating to March’s oil price next year to fund the purchase of an extra 39%
collapse. Meanwhile, IOC’s revenue amounted stake in plastics maker Borealis. It already has a
to INR889.37bn ($11.82bn) in the quarter, down 36% position at the company, which controls a
from the INR1.5 trillion ($19.95bn) reported in key petrochemicals complex in the UAE.
the same three months of 2019-2020. Borealis, through its Borouge joint venture
The company’s gross refining margin (GRM) with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC),
also shrank from $4.69 per barrel in the first operates the Ruwais complex in the UAE.
quarter of 2019-2020 to just $1.98 per bar- ADNOC wants to develop the complex into the
rel between April and June of this year. IOC largest integrated refining and petrochemicals
trimmed operating rates at its refineries follow- hub in the world, and OMV is eager to consol-
ing the reintroduction of lockdowns in states idate its control over this strategic investment.
across the country, owing to a fresh surge of cases Meanwhile, Nigeria is banking on the launch
in June. (India reported nearly 55,000 new cases of its 650,000 barrel per day (bpd) Dangote oil
of coronavirus (COVID-19) on August 2, bring- refinery early next year to end its reliance on
ing the country’s total to 1.75mn. Of that figure, costly fuel imports and have some supplies spare
1.1mn new cases were identified in July.) for shipment overseas. But as DMEA reports
IOC chairman S M Vaidya said last week this week, the plant’s completion is more likely
that capacity utilisation had averaged 69% in in either late 2021 or early 2022, given the string
the quarter. He noted that while capacity rates of delays it has already faced.
had picked up at the start of the July, climbing to There are also concerns that state-owned
around 93%, they had retreated to 75% as state NNPC has given up on its existing three refin-
governments reintroduced social quarantine eries and that its talk of finally modernising the
measures. The chairman warned that operating outdated facilities is mere lip service.

Week 31 06•August•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P5