Page 8 - NorthAmOil Week 24

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ExxonMobil is
reportedly delaying the
start-up of its Beaumont
refinery expansion by
a year, because of the
COVID-19 crisis.

The dust is settling on that meeting and there Coast pipeline, ruling that the Forest Service
are many pieces to pick up and look at this had acted lawfully in allowing the project to
week. cross under the Appalachian Trail. A lower
The first signs of how Iraq may find its way court ruling had been holding up construction
out of the competing demands of cutting its on the pipeline. (See: Supreme Court ruling a
oil production to meet the OPEC quota, bal- breakthrough for pipelines, page 11)
ancing its budget and finding agreement with The ruling was considered to be the main
the various international oil companies (IOCs) obstacle for the $8bn pipeline, which will have
operating in the country are being seen. It is not the capacity to carry 1.5bn cubic feet (42.5mn
difficult to predict that there will be many twists cubic metres) per day of gas from the Marcellus
and turns on the road ahead. shale to North Carolina and West Virginia.
One country which is not affected by the And the ruling is also good news for the
OPEC quota scheme but has been massively hit Mountain Valley pipeline, with operator EQM
by the underlying economic malaise is Lebanon. Midstream Partners also hoping to route the
It is not so long ago since its government was project across the Appalachian Trail and some
setting out its stall by predicting significant oil bodies of water regulated by the US Fish and
and gas finds; the first search – in Block 4 – has Wildlife Service.
found no potentially commercial reservoirs but Indeed, EQM announced last week that the
a second search is due to follow later this year. Mountain Valley pipeline, which is around 92%
However, events on the ground – such as massive complete, was now expected to enter service in
unemployment and poverty followed by protests early 2021.
and clashes – threaten to undermine the coun- On the Gulf Coast, meanwhile, ExxonMobil
try’s efforts to find green shoots in its energy and is reportedly delaying the start-up of its Beau-
tourism sectors. mont refinery expansion by a year as it grapples
A notable event is the progress of integration with depressed demand as a result of the coro-
moves in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, where QP and navirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Citing sources
Aramco have announced efforts to strengthen familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported
their presence in their respective petrochemical that the project was now anticipated to start up
businesses. in 2023 instead of 2022. (See: ExxonMobil delays
Beaumont refinery expansion start-up, page 15)
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping The expansion will make Beaumont one of
the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click the largest two refineries in the US, along with
here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor . Motiva Enterprises’ plant in Port Arthur, Texas.
It entails adding a crude distillation unit (CDU)
Mixed fortunes for US mega-projects with a capacity of 250,000 bpd, lifting the Beau-
Some good news came for two major US pipe- mont refinery’s overall capacity to 619,000 bpd.
line projects this week, even as the oil and gas ExxonMobil had been planning the expan-
industry continues to be affected by the mar- sion to help accommodate its growing crude
ket downturn and a major Gulf Coast refining production in the Permian Basin. However, the
expansion delay has also been reported. super-major scaled back its Permian drilling
On June 15, the US Supreme Court upheld plans dramatically this year as the downturn
a permit for Dominion Energy’s Atlantic took hold.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 24 18•June•2020