Page 12 - AsiaElecl Week 37

AsiaElec HYDROGEN AsiaElec

Australia pursues

hydrogen ambitions

AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA had continued its pursuit of a of new job opportunities for Australians well
world-class hydrogen industry by teaming up into the future”.
with Germany to study the development of a Canberra has called on players within the
supply chain between the two countries. research and industry sectors to submit expres-
The two governments signed up to the joint sions of interest (EoIs) to partner in the study.
feasibility study on September 9, with Australian Australian gas companies are increasingly
Trade Minister Simon Birmingham describing looking to capitalise on the clean fuel, both at
the agreement as “critical” to developing “Aus- home and abroad.
tralia’s future as a powerhouse in clean energy Natural gas utility Jemena called on the gov-
exports”. ernment in June to put hydrogen front and cen-
He said: “This study gets the ball rolling on tre of the national energy strategy.
the development of future hydrogen supply Responding to the government’s Technology
chain with Germany, which could lead to bil- Investment Roadmap (TIR), Jemena executive
lions of dollars in export earnings for Australia general manager of gas distribution Jennifer
and help them meet their future clean energy Purdie said it was “time to challenge the notion
ambitions.” that customers can only access renewable energy
The study comes after a similar agreement through the electricity grid”.
Australia signed at the start of the year with Jemena has called for a national certification
Japan, and another with South Korea in Novem- programme that will allow consumers to buy
ber 2019. Canberra released of the National verified and accredited zero-emission gas.
Hydrogen Strategy in November 2019. Woodside Energy, meanwhile, announced in
Commenting on the agreement with Ger- April that it had teamed up with Japan’s JERA,
many, Australia Resources Minister Keith Pitt Marubeni and IHI to study large-scale hydro-
said it would open up “another new market for gen-as-ammonia exports for use by the East
our resources and potentially create thousands Asian country’s coal-fired power generators. ™
FUELS

Vietnam’s fuel importers struggle

VIETNAM VIETNAMESE fuel importers’ reported efforts fact that the 130,000 barrel per day (bpd) Dung
to shift large volumes of diesel by offering sales Quat refinery had “suspended its production for
commissions to retailers have apparently failed maintenance”, had allowed the Nghi Son facility
to do the job. to maintain operations at normal levels despite
Importers had resorted to offering incentives its fuel inventories also running higher than
to retailers last week owing to a build-up in stock- normal.
piles as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) The pandemic has depressed fuel demand
pandemic, Reuters quoted two unnamed indus- across the entire Asia-Pacific region, squeezing
try sources as saying on September 8. gross refining margins (GRMs) in the process.
Importers offered a commission of Profit margins for the benchmark gasoil
VND2,500 ($0.11) per litre on sales of diesel last grade in Singapore have shrunk 35% over the
week, one source said. The newswire said Viet- past month alone, according to Refinitiv Eikon
nam’s municipal diesel pump price averaged data cited by Reuters. This puts the cracks about
VND12,000 ($0.52) per litre. 75% below historical averages.
“Diesel demand is almost dead because it has Demand is so weak that while some refiners
been strongly disrupted in industrial factories have moved to replace state-owned Abu Dhabi
where activity has been killed by COVID-19,” National Oil Co.’s (ADNOC) cancelled cargoes
said another. “So, importers are offering [a] sales for October, others have opted either only to
commission bonus to retailers to digest the huge replace some or none at all, Argus reported on
inventory, but they still failed to sell.” September 9. Dubai crude remains in contango,
Both sources said that reduced travel by car with front-month November deliveries being
had also hurt sales. A source at Nghi Son refin- offered at a discount of $0.67 per barrel on Sep-
ery, meanwhile, told Reuters that importers had tember 8, compared with a $0.35 discount being
opted to scale back their purchases in response offered on third-month January deliveries on
to reduced demand. September 1.™
The source said that this, coupled with the

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