Page 15 - FSUOGM Week 49

FSUOGM PERFORMANCE FSUOGM

Putin sees bullish outlook

for Russian petchems

RUSSIA GLOBAL demand for petrochemical products that overall oil demand will begin to decline as
will increase by 4% annually, Russian President countries invest in cleaner forms of fuel.
Russia's flagship Vladimir Putin said on December 1, outstrip- Russia is also eager to reduce its reliance on
Zapsibneftekhim ping oil consumption. imports of polyethylene, polypropylene and
petrochemicals venture The Russian leader was speaking at a meet- other petrochemical products, harnessing its
has reached full ing on the strategic development of the petro- own resources to replace them. Putin noted
capacity. chemicals industry. While demand prospects that the share of imports remained high despite
for petrochemicals are “promising,” oil demand recent project successes, and so efforts must
will grow by only 1% over the next five years continue.
and then begin to flatten. Russia’s petrochemi- “For some items, dependence on foreign sup-
cals sector has “huge growth potential,” he said, pliers reaches 100%,” Putin said. “Of course, this
while urging the promotion of Russian products situation needs to be changed.”
at home and abroad. Russia’s flagship petrochemicals venture
“For this purpose, large-scale projects with a is Zapsibneftekhim, a $9.5bn complex that
total investment of about RUB5 trillion ($66bn) Sibur is developing in Tobolsk in the Western
must be implemented in the industry,” the Pres- Siberian region of Tyumen. The plant reached
ident said. its capacity of 2.2mn tonnes per year (tpy) of
Russia has been seeking to build up its pet- petrochemicals, mostly polyethylene and poly-
rochemicals industry in recent years to add propylene, at the start of this year. While some
extra value to its oil and gas resources. The use of this supply will be used to replace imports, a
of oil and gas in petrochemicals production is portion will also be sold abroad. Sibur signed
expected to remain resilient over the coming a deal in June to sell up to 1mn tpy to China’s
decades, even as many forecasters are projecting Sinopec. ™

Russian oil supply inches

up in November

RUSSIA RUSSIAN oil and condensate production production during winter owing to the climate,
inched up 0.4% month on month in Novem- Russia hopes to fully prepare for the rise in its
OPEC+ has agreed to ber to 40.96mn tonnes (10mn barrels per quota on January 1, Novak said.
bring back 500,000 day), preliminary numbers published by the “We don’t see any challenges in increasing
bpd of oil supply in the energy ministry’s CDU-TEK data provider production,” Novak said.
new year. show. Output was down 11% year on year, OPEC+ has agreed to review its production
however, owing to record OPEC+ cuts agreed policy on a monthly basis starting in the new
in April. year. The group will be able to restore up to a
CDU-TEK does not publish a breakdown of further 500,000 bpd of oil supply in any given
how much crude oil and how much condensate month in 2021.
is produced each month. This is important, as Russia’s compliance with OPEC+ cuts will be
Russia’s OPEC+ production quota only applies determined at the next ministerial monitoring
to the former and not the latter. Between August committee meeting, scheduled to take place
1 and December 31, Russia has committed to December 16-18, Novak said. It will be “close to
capping crude supply at 8.993mn bpd. 100%,” the minister assured.
Following talks last week, OPEC+ has agreed Novak stepped down as the Russian energy
to bring only 500,000 bpd of oil supply back on minister last month but is continuing to over-
stream in January instead of the earlier plan of see key aspects of the country’s energy policy.
1.9mn bpd. This means Russia will be able to He is due to meet with Saudi Energy Minister
increase its flow by 125,000 bpd at the start of Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman on December 19 in
the new year, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Riyadh to discuss energy co-operation between
Novak said on December 3. the two oil producers and the general state of the
Despite difficulties with increasing market. ™

Week 49 09•December•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P15