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In other news, Mele Kyari, the group managing not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels in
director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. the near future.
(NNPC), remains concerned about the high The Indian government is struggling to get
cost of producing oil in his country. He urged the economy back up and running after failing to
domestic operators to invest in the capacities of control a second wave of infections. Oxford Eco-
the local workforce, saying they would not have nomics warned last week that economic growth
to pay such high rates to expatriates if they could could stall towards the end of the financial year,
hire well-trained Nigerian nationals instead. after New Delhi’s bid to reopen the economy in
June floundered. While the economy may enjoy
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping a bump from the central government’s relaxa-
Asia’s oil and gas sector then please click here for tion of quarantine, the global forecasting firm
NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor . warned that the short-term outlook had “turned
more worrisome” and that growth was projected
Asia: IOC profits halved after oil collapse to lose momentum by the end of the year.
State-run Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) has announced
an almost 50% drop in its net profit for the first If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
quarter of financial year 2020-2021. Asia’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
The company said on July 31 that its net NewsBase’s AsianOil Monitor.
profit for the April-June period slid 47% year
on year to INR19.11bn ($254.1bn), compared DMEA: OMV’s petchem push
with INR35.96bn ($478.1mn) a year earlier. The Austrian oil firm OMV plans to raise €1.5bn
company attributed the weaker performance to ($1.8bn) from a bond sale sometime within the
inventory losses relating to March’s oil price col- next year to fund the purchase of an extra 39%
lapse. Meanwhile, IOC’s revenue amounted to stake in plastics maker Borealis. It already has a
INR889.37bn ($11.82bn) in the quarter, down 36% position at the company, which controls a
from the INR1.5 trillion ($19.95bn) reported in key petrochemicals complex in the UAE.
the same three months of 2019-2020. Borealis, through its Borouge joint venture
The company’s gross refining margin (GRM) with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC),
also shrank from $4.69 per barrel in the first quarter operates the Ruwais complex in the UAE.
of 2019-2020 to just $1.98 per barrel between April ADNOC wants to develop the complex into the
and June of this year. largest integrated refining and petrochemicals
IOC trimmed operating rates at its refineries hub in the world, and OMV is eager to consol-
following the reintroduction of lockdowns in states idate its control over this strategic investment.
across the country, owing to a fresh surge of cases Meanwhile, Nigeria is banking on the launch
in June. (India reported nearly 55,000 new cases of of its 650,000 barrel per day (bpd) Dangote oil
coronavirus (COVID-19) on August 2, bringing refinery early next year to end its reliance on
the country’s total to 1.75mn. Of that figure, 1.1mn costly fuel imports and have some supplies spare
new cases were identified in July.) for shipment overseas. But as DMEA reports
IOC chairman S M Vaidya said last week that this week, the plant’s completion is more likely
capacity utilisation had averaged 69% in the quar- in either late 2021 or early 2022, given the string
ter. He noted that while capacity rates had picked of delays it has already faced.
up at the start of the July, climbing to around There are also concerns that state-owned
93%, they had retreated to 75% as state govern- NNPC has given up on its existing three refin-
ments reintroduced social quarantine measures. eries and that its talk of finally modernising the
The chairman warned that operating rates were outdated facilities is mere lip service.

Week 31 06•August•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P7