Page 8 - MEOG Week 07 2021

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG

Iraq in talks to build crude

storage in China, Pakistan

IRAQ IRAQI Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar this bpd), the sources said. Basrah Medium has an
week said that the country was in advanced dis- API gravity of 27-29.
cussions with Chinese NOCs to build oil stor-
age facilities in the Middle Eastern country as it Access to Asia
seeks to increase sales in the region. Storing oil in Asia has been popular among Gulf
Speaking to Reuters, Abdul Jabbar said that state oil firms, particularly Abu Dhabi National
while the talks had reached an advanced stage Oil Co. (ADNOC).
with the Chinese entities, Baghdad is also “dis- The company has had an agreement to store
cussing plans proposed by Pakistan for building up to 6.29mn barrels at the Kiire oil terminal in
crude oil storage facilities” there. southern Japan in place since 2009.
He added that there were plans to build stor- It also agreed terms with Japan’s Agency for
age capacity elsewhere in Asia to “serve Iraq’s Natural Resources and Energy to store more
interests in marketing its oil.” Pakistan is seen than 8mn barrels of ADNOC crude, expand-
as a key growth market for Basrah crude grades. ing and extending a deal that had lapsed a year
Meanwhile, he told Shafaq News Agency earlier.
that serious discussions were ongoing “with a Meanwhile, a memorandum of understand-
Chinese private company and other Chinese ing (MoU) was signed in November 2019 with
government companies over building jointly Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL)
managed oil depots.” to consider taking space in the new Padur cavern
Currently, around 70% of Iraq’s crude exports in the southern state of Karnataka.
are sold to Asian countries, with China and India ISPRL completed the process of filling a
accounting for a combined 90% of this figure. 5.86mn barrel allocation at the nearby Manga-
The move is seen as an important step in lore facility during the same month.
increasing Iraq’s flexibility of supply to key Asian In October 2020, the Indian Cabinet gave
markets and to developing its trading capabili- permission for ADNOC to export crude it has
ties, particularly as it spreads exports across its sitting in storage held by Indian Strategic Petro-
Basrah Heavy, Light and new Medium crude leum Reserves Ltd. (ISPRL). The reserve has a
grades. current crude storage capacity of 4.55mn tonnes
Sources from the country’s state oil marketer (33.4mn barrels) and is full.
SOMO were quoted by S&P Global Platts last Meanwhile, the commercial quantity – the
week as saying that January exports of Basrah volume available for marketing by ADNOC –
Medium equated to 891,000 barrels per day was recently increased from 35% to 50%. India
(bpd) in January following its launch, amounting sees this as an opportunity to turn the country
to around 32% of the total. into a hub for re-export, while ADNOC has
Meanwhile, Basrah Light accounted for 40% around 17mn barrels available for sale from stra-
(1.1mn bpd) and Basrah Heavy 28% (782,000 tegic locations in India.™

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