Page 7 - MEOG Week 06
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MEOG FInanCe & InVestment MEOG
 Brooge secures land for oil storage expansion
 uae
UAE-BASED Brooge Petroleum and Gas Invest- ment (BPGIC) has signed an agreement with authorities in the Fujairah Free zone (FFz) to rent 450,000 square metres of land expand its oil storage capability and potentially build a new refinery.
BPGIC is currently working on a sec- ond-stage expansion of its storage facilities in the Fujairah Emirate, which will raise its capacity from 400,000 cubic metres to 1mn cubic metres by the end of September this year. It announced plans in late 2019 for a third stage, which could add a further 3.5mn cubic metres of space, posi- tioning BPGIC the largest storage operator in Fujairah.
The land lease agreement for this phase was signed with the Fujairah Oil Industrial zone (FOIz) authority on February 6, BPGIC said in a statement. In addition to storage, the plot could potential feature an oil refinery with a capacity of up to 180,000 barrels per day. BPGIC is currently
seeking financing for the new development phase.
The company recently revealed plans to build a new 250,000 bpd refinery that will serve ships with low-sulphur fuel compliant with IMO 2020 rules, awarding a contract to build the facility to Spain’s SENEr engineering group in September last year. Under the project’s initial stage, a 25,000 bpd modular refinery is slated for completion before the end of the current quarter.
Fujairah is considered a prime location for oil storage, situated just outside the Strait of Hor- muz, a narrow waterway that carries around 17.5mn barrels per day of Middle Eastern crude to markets that Iran has repeatedly threatened to block. It is also one of the world’s largest bun- kering hubs.
BPGIC was set up by parent company Brooge Petroleum in 2013. Last year it listed its shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange after merging with US-based firm Twelve Seas Investment Co.™
   Oil minister claims Iran has become OPEC’s biggest petrol exporter
 Iran
IrAN has become OPEC’s largest exporter of petrol, Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar zan- ganeh told IrIB in a live television interview on February 4.
He made no mention of US sanctions which theoretically are a big hindrance to Iranian pet- rol exports, meaning illicit transactions have not been countered by Washington to date or are passing disguised through the grey economy.
zanganeh said that the exports became pos- sible after new fuel measures were brought in overnight last November.
Under a new rationing system, each motorist that presents their ‘petrol card’ is allowed to buy 60 litres (13 gallons) of petrol a month at 15,000 rials (around $0.09 at the free market rate) a litre.
Each additional litre then costs 30,000 rials. Previously, drivers were allowed up to 250 litres at 10,000 rials per litre.
The announcement of the big price rise and
rationing sparked nationwide street unrest, prompting officials to shut down the internet for several days in an attempt to curb trouble. Unverified reports have put the riots’ death toll in the hundreds or even at over 1,000.
At the time of the unrest, Iranian President Hassan rouhani said that if the government hadn’t increased fuel prices the country would have been forced to become a net importer of petrol. Such a situation would pose a big problem for Iran given the US sanctions.
Even after the hike, Iran’s petrol prices are among the lowest in the world. Daily petrol con- sumption in Iran was 75-76mn litres, but after the introduction of rationing quotas the figure decreased by 20mn litres.
Iran built up its refining capacity, lately upgraded to Euro-5 standard, after suffering petrol shortages during previous rounds of sanc- tions applied before the 2015 nuclear deal.™
PoLICy
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