Page 5 - AsianOil Week 32
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Indian oil consumption is projected to roughly double over the next two decades, from 5mn barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2020 to 9.9mn boepd by 2040, according to OPEC’s latest World Oil Outlook.
With India looking to secure supply and Saudi keen to shore up future market share, the Aramco/RIL tie-up makes sense from both sides. is was underlined by Ambani who said that as part of the deal, RIL will agree to a long- term purchase of 500,000 bpd of Aramco crude.
“Saudi Aramco and Reliance have agreed to form a long-term partnership in our oils to chemicals division [...] is signi es the perfect synergy between the world’s largest oil producer and world’s biggest integrated re nery and pet- rochemicals complex,” he said.
e jewel in the RIL crown is the 1.24mn bpd Jamnagar re ning complex, and the acquisition of a 20% stake in the business would add a the- oretical net re ning capacity of 240,000 bpd to Aramco’s books.
Makes sense for Aramco
Ambani noted that the deal is expected to be by March 2020 and is subject to due diligence and regulatory and other approvals. Reporting on the deal, Bloomberg said that by ensuring Aramco crude is used as feedstock for the re nery, the deal could pay for itself within 18 months.
Aramco has been making progress on its moves to secure markets for its crude in recent months. In mid-June the naphtha cracker at the developing $2.7bn Refinery and Petro- chemical Integrated Project (RAPID) facility
in Pengerang, Malaysia came into action and a week later Indonesia’s Pertamina announced that it would be prolonging negotiations with the Saudi rm over their planned joint development of a re nery in Central Java.
Meanwhile, the RIL OTC would appear to fit with Aramco’s current domestic strategy to develop a $20bn crude-oil-to-chemicals (COTC) complex at the western industrial city of Yanbu on which a nal investment decision (FID) is expected this year. e proposed plant coheres with the long-term strategies Aramco and of Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), which the former acquired in a $69.1bn deal.
e proposed plant would have capacity to convert 400,000 bpd of crude into around 9mn tpy of a wide slate of petrochemicals products.
While the project is rarely mentioned pub- licly, a slew of deals earlier this year, notably to TechnipFMC, Wood Group and a JV of CB&I and Chevron Lummus Global, suggest that pro- gress is being made.
Meanwhile, RIL continues to sell o assets as it seeks to tackle a heavy debt burden. It also announced this week it had come to terms on a deal with BP for the super-major to acquire a 49% stake in its fuel retail business for $900mn. It said that the pair had agreed to form a JV to run 1,400 fuel stations and aviation fuel operations at more than 30 Indian airports.
As the Indian rm seeks to reduce its debt, Aramco and BP have landed deals that will present major opportunities to bene t from the upward trajectory of Indian demand for fuel and other petroleum products.
Week 32 14•August•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P5
