Page 14 - FSUOGM Week 21 2021

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Gazprom Neft plots

petrochemicals path

RUSSIA GAZPROM Neft wants to expand the role of diversifying the [commodity] basket and mov-
petrochemicals in its business, banking on solid ing towards petrochemicals.”
Petrochemicals demand demand growth in the years to come, the direc- A number of other downstream players in
will grow by 3% per tor of its oil and gas refining division, Mikhail Europe are following a similar course. Austria’s
year between now and Antonov, said at a conference in St Petersburg OMV, for example, recently strengthened its
2035, according to last week. position in the petrochemicals market by raising
Gazprom Neft. The oil arm of state-owned gas giant Gaz- its stake in polymers giant Borealis from 36% to
prom aims to raise polymer production to 15% 75% for $4.7bn. Polish refiner PKN Orlen is pur-
of its total refining output by 2035, Antonov said suing a similar direction, with plans to generate
at the Argus Oil Product Market 2021 event. Its half of its oil processing profit from petrochemi-
refining development plans have so far focused cals by the end of this decade.
on improving product quality, with the goal of According to Antonov, refiners can offer
increasing refining depth to 95% by 2025. The competitive polymer products to the market,
refining depth of its refinery in Moscow was only albeit not in such large volumes as the major pet-
82% at the end of last year, although its smaller rochemicals producers.
facility in Omsk had a depth of 93%. “Any refinery produces a sufficient amount of
However, Antonov said Gazprom Neft’s naphtha and fuel gases that are easy to monetise
focus is shifting. This is largely because global moving from the motor fuel basket to petro-
consumption of petrochemical products is set chemicals,” he said. “This is the kind of techno-
to grow by 3% per year between now and 2035, logical flexibility we can afford.”
the executive explained, while demand for motor Antonov did not disclose any details of pet-
fuels will stagnate or see only a marginal increase. rochemical projects at Gazprom Neft’s process-
“We see quite serious challenges in terms of ing facilities. But he did say that the prospect
global demand for petroleum products, includ- was being considered not only at the Omsk and
ing motor fuels in Europe and America,” he said. Moscow refineries but also the Yaroslavl refinery,
“Therefore, today we are starting to think about which Gazprom Neft co-owns with Rosneft. ™

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