Page 6 - AsianOil Week 45 2021

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COVID scare sends CNPC into state of emergency

PIPELINES & STATE-OWNED China National Petroleum suspend in-person meetings and training ses-
TRANSPORT Corp (CNPC) has entered a state of emergency sions in Beijing.
at its Beijing offices after four employees tested The Jilin case also prompted Beijing author-
positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), the ities to tighten the city’s entry regulations after
Global Times reported on November 11. the exposure led to seven confirmed cases in the
CNCP is conducting nucleic acid testing for wider community.
all its Beijing-based employees, the deputy direc- The secretary of the Communist Party of
tor of CNPC’s integrated management depart- China (CPC) Beijing Municipal Committee,
ment, Liu Shengyao, was quoted as saying at a Cai Qi, was quoted by the Global Times as saying
press conference. that the fight to contain the virus’ transmission
Liu vowed the company would strengthen its was “grim and complex” as a result of the new
testing and disinfection protocols after reveal- infection cluster.
ing that one of the infected employees had phys- China is one of the last countries in the world
ically attended meetings alongside 111 other that still is pursuing a zero-COVID-19 strategy
employees. instead of learning to live with the virus. That
The employee in question was from CNPC’s strategy, however, could have serious implica-
branch in Jilin Province and had been visiting tions for the economic giant’s growth outlook.
Beijing on a business trip between October 20 Commerzbank senior emerging markets
and November 7. economist Hao Zhou warned this week that the
CNPC said it had instructed its employees zero-tolerance approach would put domestic
to continue working as usual while co-oper- demand under pressure.
ating with the investigation. Those who had “[T]here’s no sign that China will loosen or
already left the Beijing building were asked relax this kind of policy any time soon. So in
to quarantine at home for seven days. While the next couple of quarters, I think basically the
it attempts to narrow down the spread of economic activity will continue to slow down in
the infection the state major has said it will China,” he told CNBC on November 8.™

ExxonMobil reaches FID on

Chinese petchem project

FINANCE & US super-major ExxonMobil has made a final positioned to meet the needs of that growing
INVESTMENT investment decision (FID) on a multi-billion market,” ExxonMobil Chemical president Karen
dollar petrochemical project in southern China. McKee said.
The complex, which will be located in the The super-major noted that the facility would
Dayawan Petrochemical Industrial Park in support China’s goal of bolstering petrochemical
Guangdong Province’s Huizhou City, will pro- goals, including self-sufficiency, diversified feed-
duce performance polymers, ExxonMobil said stock sources and advancing new competitive
on November 8. The packaging, automotive, technology.
agriculture and consumer product industries China’s bigger downstream players have
will use the polymers. begun investing more heavily in petrochemicals
Construction has already been started on the ahead of an anticipated peak in oil demand in
project, which will include a flexible feed steam the next decade. State-owned Sinopec warned in
cracker, three performance polyethylene lines December 2020 that China’s oil product demand
and two differentiated performance polypropyl- would reach its zenith by 2025, with an expan-
ene lines. The steam cracker will have a nameplate sion in crude runs likely to be driven by rising
capacity of around 1.6mn tonnes per year (tpy). petrochemical demand.
The project will also include “industry-leading” While the transition from international com-
technologies to improve energy efficiency. bustion engines (ICEs) to new energy vehicles
While ExxonMobil refrained from providing (NEVs) will undermine oil product demand,
an exact cost estimate for the project, the official petrochemical demand will not be so easily
Xinhua news agency reported in April 2020 that replaced. McKinsey Energy Insights has pre-
the development would cost $10bn. dicted that the petrochemicals sector will be
“Demand for performance polymers will the most important growth driver for global oil
continue to increase in China, and we’re well demand between 2020 and 2030.™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 45 12•November•2021