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Asia: India invites IOCs to invest in SPR to re-export some of the oil it stored in the Man-
The Indian government is looking to attract galore SPR.
investment from international oil companies Pradhan said in September that the country
(IOCs) in its next wave of strategic petroleum was considering also strategic storage in the US
reserve (SPR) development. and other “commercially viable locations.”
New Delhi was looking for “global” inves-
tors to help fund the addition of 6.5mn tonnes If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
(47.65mn barrels) of SPR capacity over two Asia’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
facilities in Chandikol and Padur, Indian Minis- NewsBase’s AsianOil Monitor.
ter for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra
Pradhan told an industry event on November 9. DMEA: Nigerian protests
He said: “I invite global energy players to come Nigerian workers demonstrated on November 3
and invest in this project.” over pay issues outside the 650,000 barrel per day
The country already has three underground (bpd) refinery Dangote is developing near Lagos.
facilities located in Padur, Mangalore and The protests come at a time when Nigeria is in Nigeria is
Visakhapatnam, with 2.5mn tonnes (18.33mn the grip of civil unrest, triggered by outrage over
barrels), 1.5mn tonnes (11mn barrels) and civil and human rights abuses. counting on
1.33mn tonnes (9.75mn barrels) of capacity According to Dangote, the protestors were the Dangote
respectively. not its employees but were subcontractors. They
However, declining domestic production are complaining about low wages and poor refinery to end its
and a historic upward trend in oil imports has working conditions, reports on social media
impressed on the government the need for emer- state. dependence on
gency stockpiles to mitigate oil market shocks. The refinery is being erected at the Lekki free
The country’s production of crude and trade zone some 70 km east of Lagos, Nigeria’s fuel imports and
condensate shrank 6.05% year on year in Sep- commercial capital. Nigeria is counting on the even produce a
tember to 2.49mn tonnes (608,000 barrels per $10bn project, due on stream in two years, to
day). While imports also contracted in Septem- end its dependence on fuel imports and even surplus for export
ber, down 9.8% on the year to 15.18mn tonnes produce a surplus for export. Dangote said
(3.71mn bpd), this was driven by a fall in eco- this month that the refinery had reached 80%
nomic activity on the back of government lock- completion.
down measures. Lagos has seen weeks of protests against pol-
Indeed, the country is beginning to show icy brutality that culminated in the shooting of
renewed appetite for energy, with Pradhan not- peaceful protestors by military and police on
ing that domestic gasoline, diesel and liquid October 20, according to Amnesty International.
petroleum gas (LPG) sales rose last year. In some areas the protests have turned into riot-
“We anticipate that this recovery path in ing and looting.
energy demand growth in India will sustain in Over in Oman, OQ and Kuwait Petroleum
the coming months,” Pradhan said. He added are reconsidering plans for a petrochemicals unit
that the country’s share of global energy con- at the 230,000 bpd refinery they are building in
sumption was projected to rise from 7% to 12% Duqm. Their joint venture said in a statement
by 2050. that it had halted front-end engineering design
Part of the government’s strategy to raise (FEED) work, while its board assesses the impact
investor interest in its SPR programme has been of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis on the
to allow Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) market.

Week 45 11•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P7