Page 14 - DMEA Week 14 2020

DMEA FUEL DMEA
Mozambique says no fuel shortage expected
MOZAMBIQUE
IMOPETRO head says Mozambique is unlikely to see fuel shortages as a result of coronavirus.
THE head of Mozambique’s state petroleum import agency IMOPETRO has said that the country is not likely to experience any fuel short- ages as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
João Macandja, the managing director of IMOPETRO, told Mozambique’s national press agency AIM last week that the country’s petro- leum product inventories were full enough to cover demand until the end of the month, when the state of emergency imposed by the govern- ment is due to expire. “No breakdown in fuel suppliesisenvisaged,”hereported.“Theamount of fuel in our tanks is enough for at least 30 days of consumption.”
Additionally, he said, Mozambique’s suppli- ers have not halted fuel deliveries. There are sev- eral tankers waiting to unload their cargoes in Mozambican ports, and shipping operators have confirmed that more vessels will arrive in May and June, he told AIM.
Moreover, he said, the supply outlook is even more favourable in light of the fact that fuel con- sumption levels are down. Indeed, Mozambique actually has an excess of petroleum products, since economic activity has dwindled since the imposition of public health measures that con- strain fuel demand, he remarked.
Macandja did say, though, that Mozambique was on track to see imports of LPG, known locally as cooking gas, rise this year. The country imported some 26,000 tonnes of LPG in 2019, and volumes are set to reach 50,000 tonnes in 2020, he said. LPG consumption is climbing because many household consumers prefer to use cooking gas instead of firewood or charcoal, he noted.
Mozambique’s government declared a state of emergency on April 1. As noted above, this decla- ration is due to expire at the end of April. Maputo does, however, have the option of extending it by
up to two more 30-day
periods. ™
Iran-Turkey gas pipeline ‘attacked by terrorists’
Iran has said it is expected to take three to four days to repair a gas pipeline attacked by terrorists in Turkey and resume gas exports.
Mehdi Jamshidi-Dana, director of National Iranian Gas Co., told state TV that the pipeline was attacked on March 30 near Iran’s Bazargan border with Turkey.
“The pipeline has exploded several times in the past. It is also likely that the PKK [the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] group has carried out the blast,” he added in comments made to state news agency IRNA.
Jamshidi also reportedly said that because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak “the Turkish border guards have left, but we have informed them of the explosion and are waiting for their response”. Turkey closed its borders with Iran after the latter developed one of the worst epidemics of the virus even before the outbreak was declared a pandemic.
State broadcaster TRT Haber reported that the cause of the explosion was unknown.
“The gas flow on the natural gas pipeline was cut and the fire that had started was extinguished by fire squads. Security forces are investigating the cause for the incident that caused damage on the pipeline,” TYT Haber reported, as cited by Reuters. The pipeline transits around 10bn cubic meters of Iranian gas to Turkey annually. During the 1990s and up until 2013 it frequently came under attack by Kurdish militants. The attacks stopped after a ceasefire was established.
Iran completes oil product terminal
The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company has completed the construction of a new oil products storage terminal in northwestern Iran, semi-official news agency ILNA reported on April 4.
The terminal, in Orumiyeh, has the capacity to store 118 million litres of oil, gasoline and kerosene, it added.
It has been named after Major General Qasem Soleimani, the top commander
of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),
who was assassinated on the orders of US President Donald Trump in early January in a US drone strike at Baghdad airport.
Another fire breaks out at Syrian oil refinery
The director of the Baniyas Oil Refinery in western Syria reported that a fire broke out at the facility in the city of Baniyas on the Syrian coast, wounding four workers.
“During the maintenance work in the refinery’s improvement department, there
was a combustion due to hydrogen gas, which resulted in the injury of four workers with minor burns who were treated at the hospital,” Bassam Salameh said, adding that the fire was controlled and that the facility was working normally again.
The Baniyas Refinery in the Tartus
NEWS IN BRIEF
governorate in western Syria has been subjected a number of explosions and fires over the last year, with some of these incidents being accidents and the others arson.
Syria’s Ministry of Oil and Natural Resources, without specifying details, had announced that three terrorist attacks targeted oil facilities in the central Homs province. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had also talked about drone attacks targeting these facilities.
The Ministry previously reported that the attacks targeted an oil refinery located in the city of Homs, a gas plant south of the central region, and the Al Rayyan gas station in the Badia.
It also pointed out that “the assaults caused damage to some of the production units,” noting that the firefighting teams had intervened to put out the fire, and that “technical workshops had started with the repairs.”
The Syrian regime’s state television broadcast videos showing firefighting teams operating in the dark to put out the flames in one of the three installations.
The official Syrian News Agency (SANA) quoted Oil Minister Ali Ghanem as saying that “the attacks has put a number of production units at the three sites out of work.”
“Technical and firefighting teams were able to control the fire during the first hours, and the technical workshops began to assess the damage, and start maintenance work,” he added.
The Observatory reported that the three installations were targeted with drones. The ISIS terrorist group, whose fighters hide in the Badia, was likely behind the attack.
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Week 14 09•April•2020