Page 8 - AsianOil Week 17

AsianOil SOUTHEAST ASIA AsianOil
Sabah allows Petronas to resume operations
POLICY
MALAYSIA’S Sabah State has granted national oil company (NOC) Petronas permission to resume operations at several key facilities.
The company has been allowed to bring the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal (SOGT) and Sabah Ammonia and Urea (Samur) back online as well as begin offshore operations in the state, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said on April 29.
“Theyareallowedtoworkasusual,”themin- ister told reporters following a meeting with a team of Chinese experts skilled in tackling the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Malaysian Director-General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah has said the country has suc- ceeded in “flattening the curve” of new infections thanks to its lockdown and can begin looking to the recovery phase. The country’s reported cases amounted to 5,820 as of April 27.
While Kuala Lumpur has extended the coun- try’s Movement Control Order (MCO) until May 12, it has said more business sectors may be allowed to reopen if new case numbers continue to fall.
Apdal’s comments about allowing Petro- nas to begin offshore operations comes after
the company denied this week that it had shut down some of its Malaysian offshore oil rigs in response to the oil price crisis.
“Petronas would like to clarify that the company has not shut down any of its rigs offshore Malaysia, other than those con- cluding their drilling campaigns or [which] are under temporary suspensions due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. As at the date of this release [April 25], 18 rigs are in operation within Malaysia waters,” the state major said.
Petronas was responding to a New Straits Times report that the company had been trimming the number of fully active rigs as oil prices began to slide in late 2019. Quoting an unnamed industry publication, the paper said Petronas had shut down or warm-stacked 14 of its 18 rigs.
Petronas, however, said it had only tempo- rarily suspended some projects in response to the government’s MCO. It added: “Currently, most of these projects have either resumed their work activities or will be resuming soon upon securing the necessary approval from the government.”™
EAST ASIA
China’s imports of Russian oil soared in March
PERFORMANCE
CHINA’S purchases of Russian crude soared in March as the country’s refineries sought to capi- talise on bargain basement pricing.
The country imported 7.02mn tonnes (1.68mn barrels per day, bpd) of oil from Rus- sia, according to data published by the General Administration of Customs (GAC) published on April 26. Reuters’ calculations showed that this represented a 31% increase year on year.
While China’s overall imports for the month expanded by 4.5% y/y to 41.1mn tonnes (9.72mn bpd), the country’s largest supplier actually saw its market share slide. Purchases from Saudi Arabia fell by 1.6% y/y to 7.21mn tonnes (1.7mn bpd).
Bloomberg quoted unnamed officials on April 30 as saying that the country’s refinery run rates amounted to 13mn bpd in April, almost the same as 2019’s monthly average and a significant rebound from February’s daily average of 9mn bpd.
The spike in imports is understood to have been mostly driven by independent refiners,
which are looking to capitalise on the Saudi-Rus- sian oil price war. That scenario lines up with reports from late March that imports of Urals blend – a favourite among smaller Chinese plants – were on the rise.
Chinese oil trading giant Unipec, a division of state-owned Sinopec Group, reportedly purchased 800,000 tonnes of Urals loading from Baltic ports in the second half of March, along with a further 500,000 tonnes loading in early April.
China’s teapot refiners have in the past leaned towards Urals, which is similar to Oman crude in quality but with better refining economics. Moreover, Reuters reported in mid-March 13 that Saudi was chasing market share in Urals’ main markets.
Chinese demand for fuels is recovering as the country’s economy begins to gain traction following a months-long lockdown. Bloomberg reported that peak-hour traffic in Beijing and Shenzhen was heavier over the past week than in the same period of 2019.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 17 30•April•2020