Page 7 - AsianOil Week 24 2022

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US targets Chinese, Emirati and Iranian firms

in new crackdown on Iran’s petchem exports

POLICY THE US on June 16 announced sanctions on return to compliance with the Joint Compre-
Chinese and Emirati companies and a network hensive Plan of Action,” US Under Secretary of
of Iranian firms said to assist in exporting Iran’s the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelli-
petrochemicals. gence Brian Nelson said in a statement, referring
Washington might be once again cranking to the JCPOA.
up enforcement of its Iran sanctions in order to “Absent a deal, we will continue to use our
exert leverage on Tehran to progress deadlocked sanctions authorities to limit exports of petro-
talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, or leum, petroleum products, and petrochemical
JCPOA. Tehran has said it remains open to strik- products from Iran,” Nelson said.
ing an agreement with the US and other major Iran’s deputy foreign minister for economic
powers on bringing back the JCPOA—designed diplomacy, Mehdi Safari, responded on Iranian
to curb the Iranian nuclear programme in return state TV, saying: “Our petrochemical industry
for the lifting of economic sanctions—but the US and its products have long been under sanctions,
has said it is awaiting a “constructive” communi- but our sales have continued through various
cation from Tehran that does not demand con- channels and shall continue to do so.”
sideration of matters the Biden administration The Treasury Department named the
considers “extraneous” to the nuclear deal. sanctioned Hong Kong-based companies as
The US Treasury department said that it had Keen Well International and Teamford Enter-
imposed penalties on two companies based in prises and the sanctioned Iran-based firms as
Hong Kong, three in Iran, and four in the United Fanavaran Petrochemical, Kharg Petrochemical
Arab Emirates, as well as on Chinese citizen Jin- and Marun Petrochemical.
feng Gao and Indian national Mohammed Sha- The Treasury listed the four UAE-based com-
heed Ruknooddin Bhore. panies hit with sanctions as Future Gate Fuel and
“The United States is pursuing the path of Petrochemical Trading, GX Shipping, Sky Zone
meaningful diplomacy to achieve a mutual Trading and Youchem General Trading.™

ASIA-PACIFIC

TotalEnergies signs deals with Asian partners

PROJECTS & FRANCE’S TotalEnergies has signed two sep- hydrogen for the Indian domestic market, aimed
COMPANIES arate energy-focused deals with Asian partners at substituting current urea imports. Its early
– India’s Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) and South plans also include investing around $5bn in a
Korea’s Korea Gas (Kogas) – over the past week. 2-GW electrolyser that will use power generated
On June 14, the French company said it had by a 4-GW solar and wind farm.
entered into an agreement with AEL to buy a 25% Separately, on June 15, TotalEnergies signed
interest in the Adani New Industries Ltd (ANIL) a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with
unit. The companies will use the ANIL business Kogas to boost LNG trading and optimisation.
exclusively to pursue the production and com- That agreement paves the way towards setting
mercialisation of green hydrogen in India. up a formal framework for long-term co-opera-
ANIL will target production of 1mn tonnes tion between the two companies, according to a
per year (tpy) of green hydrogen by 2030, under- statement Kogas shared with Reuters.
pinned by around 30 gigawatts (GW) of new “The two companies, directly and through
renewable power generation capacity. their affiliates Kogas International (KI) and
Green hydrogen is the cleanest, but also the TotalEnergies Gas and Power Asia (TEGPA),
costliest form of hydrogen. TotalEnergies said have a strong track record of co-operation in
that in an effort to keep production costs down, LNG procurement for the Korean market and in
the partners in ANIL would integrate the com- optimising Kogas volumes out of Sabine Pass in
pany along the value chain, from the manufac- the United States,” the South Korean company
turing of equipment, to the production of the said.
green hydrogen itself and its transformation into Kogas and TotalEnergies will also explore
derivatives, including nitrogenous fertilisers and the development of potential projects and trans-
methanol, both for the domestic market and for actions involving renewable and low-carbon
export. hydrogen, and their derivatives.
ANIL will initially develop a project to pro- The MoU comes as South Korea seeks to bol-
duce 1.3mn tpy of urea derived from green ster its energy security.™

Week 24 17•June•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7