Page 7 - DMEA Week 33 2019
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DMEA inVestment DMEA
CBI chief demands Europe supports INSTEX
middle east
THE governor of the Central Bank of iran (CBi) has said that the Europeans should show their sincerity about their instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (iNSTEX) by buying iran’s crude, Mehr News reported on August 21.
is is not the rst time iran has suggested Europe buy its oil to make the iNSTEX spe- cial purpose vehicle viable. However, repeated threats by the US to not consider such a proposal has forced the EU to avoid the subject when dis- cussing the payment channel with Tehran.
“if the Westerners [Europe] are serious and determined about this issue [iNSTEX], they should inject money to it equal to the extent that our oil revenues have been harmed or le for iran’s oil futures,” Abdolnasser Hemmati said in an interview.
He stressed that if the Europeans want to keep the nuclear deal alive, they should implement their undertakings, noting that iNSTEX should also include the sanctioned goods too. Washing- ton withdrew from the internationally-endorsed
2015 nuclear deal with iran in May 2018, re-im- posed sanctions against the country and started a plan to zero down Tehran’s oil sales.
instex has failed to get moving in any form, with the head of the edgling proto-bank forced to back out before it even got moving.
Bernd Erbel, a 72-year-old former German ambassador to Tehran, told the foreign minis- try in Berlin that he would not be available to become the iNSTEX chief.
His decision followed a report in German tab- loid Bild. it focused on a YouTube interview in which Erbel voiced criticism of israel and its role in the Middle East and showed understanding for iran’s ambitions to develop a ballistic missile programme. in the interview, he said that israel was “more than ever an alien body” in the region.
in July, Russia indicated it might be willing to process trade with iran through iNSTEX, as part of e orts to shore up the ailing project. However, Moscow agrees with iran that iNSTEX should feature bartered oil.
Namibian official explains rejection of refinery proposals
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NAMiBiA’S Ministry of Mines and Energy con rmed last week that it was not yet ready to approve any of the proposals it has received for the construction of an oil re nery.
Simeon Negumbo, the ministry’s executive director, told New Era that Namibian o cials had already reviewed multiple offers from potential investors. At the low end, he said, some companies have o ered to build a plant with a throughput capacity of about 25,000 barrels per day for as little as NAD4bn ($263.6mn). Oth- ers have submitted bids of up to NAD120bn ($7.9bn) for larger facilities capable of handling up to 100,000 bpd, he said. So far, though, all of these proposals have fallen short of the govern- ment’s requirements, he stated.
“No approval has been granted yet to any par- ticular company to proceed with the construc- tion of an oil re nery ... [Before] the ministry can provide its approval for the project to go ahead, [the] companies themselves have an obliga- tion to conduct feasibility studies and establish [whether] oil re ning in Namibia is a feasible business to undertake. None of the intended investors [has] yet submitted such a feasibility study to the ministry,” he explained.
Negumbo stressed that Windhoek was
sympathetic to some of the arguments made by supporters of the re nery plan. He agreed that the project would bolster the country’s energy security, as it would lead to a reduction in petro- leum product imports.
Nevertheless, he took exception to assertions about the likely impact of the scheme on domes- tic fuel prices. Even if it built a re nery, he said, Namibia would still have to import feedstock. As a result, it would remain vulnerable to uctua- tions on the world oil market, he stated.
“[A] local re nery alone will not shield us from geopolitical upsets, as the country is not yet a crude oil producer,” the executive director remarked. He conceded that such a plant could, if operated e ciently, improve conditions on the domestic petroleum product market by increas- ing supplies. Even so, he said, the impact on fuel prices might not be signi cant.
One of the potential investors that has stepped forward recently is Clasox Petroleum, a local company that is seeking to acquire a 0.1-square km site near Walvis Bay for the pur- pose of building a re nery. Comsar, a company owned by the Russian billionaire Rashid Sard- arov, has also indicated its willingness to spend NAD21bn ($1.4bn) on a similar project.
reFining
Week 33 22•August•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7
