Page 11 - AsianOil Week 38

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IOC looks to up US oil imports
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
STATE-RUN Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) has said it is willing to increase crude imports from the US once export bottlenecks have been resolved.
The bottlenecks prevent the berthing and loading of very large crude carriers (VLCCs) at terminals, IOC chairman Sanjiv Singh told the Times of India.
IOC’s former finance director, A K Sharma, told the daily that US exporters use smaller vessels to transport oil from the terminal to VLCCs anchored in deeper waters. “They load their VLCCs and then offer in the market. As buyers, this ties us down to their vessels, which sometimes may not work to our advantage. But things can improve with de-bottle- necking,” Sharma said.
While noting that using smaller vessels was not an economical option, Singh said US sup- plier were working on de-bottlenecking and hoped“tocompleteitbyJanuary”.
India has been ramping up its purchases of US oil in response to the re-imposition of sanc- tions in Iran as well as a means to diversify its import portfolio to include less geopolitically risky suppliers.
IOC became India’s first state-run refiner to sign an annual supply contract for US crude in
February and the contract began in April. Reu- ters cited an unnamed trade source as saying at the time that Norway’s Equinor had agreed to supply IOC with a variety of US crude grades.
The company has signed term contracts for the supply of 4.6mn tonnes (92,000 barrels per day (bpd)) of US crude this year.
India has been forced to take stock of its oil supply situation in the aftermath of recent attacks on key Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure. While the kingdom was quick to promise that it would get production back to full speed by the end of November, the attacks have exposed the vulnerability of relying on the volatile Middle East for oil imports. India relies on foreign oil to meet more than 80% of its demand, with four Middle Eastern countries topping the South Asian country’s list of suppliers in financial year 2018-2019.
While Iraq came first, supplying 46.61mn tonnes (936,000 bpd) of crude, Saudi Ara- bia came second, delivering 40.33mn tonnes (810,000 bpd) of oil. Iran was third with 23.9mn tonnes (480,000 bpd) of exported crude, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in fourth place with 17.49mn tonnes (351,000 bpd).™
Petronas posts 9% gain in H1 profit
SOUTHEAST ASIA
PERFORMANCE
MALAYSIA’S state-owned Petronas has posted a first-half net profit of MYR28.9bn ($6.92bn), up 9% on the same period of 2018.
While the company attributed the improved results to higher revenue, which climbed 3.3% year on year to MYR121.1bn ($28.99bn), it noted that higher production costs had partially offset gains.
While crude and oil product prices con- tracted during the first half, the company’s rev- enue was supported by higher oil product and liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales as well as the
ringgit’s depreciation against the US dollar. Pet- ronas’ oil product sales expanded by 7.7% y/y to 12.5bn litres, while LNG sales climbed 5% to 15.23mn tonnes.
Net profit for the April-June period climbed by 8% to MYR14.7bn ($3.52bn), while revenue was roughly flat at MYR59.1bn ($14.13bn).
Capital expenditure in the second quarter amounted to MYR7.5bn ($1.79bn), with the company noting that the majority of this went on upstream projects. This brought spending for the first half to MYR15.7bn ($3.75bn).
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