Page 7 - AsianOil Week 07 2021

AsianOil SOUTHEAST ASIA AsianOil

expansion,” Phoenix Petroleum vice-president coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Phoe-
for external affairs, Raymond Zorilla, told the nix posted a PHP95mn (US$1.96mn) net
Philippine Star on February 17. The executive loss for the first nine months of 2020. In
denied that a possible PHP37bn (US$764.3mn) the run-up to the end of last year, Phoenix
sale of the company was on the cards. embarked on PHP4.25bn ($87.8mn) refi-
The company, as with other energy play- nancing programme to strengthen its bal-
ers, has seen its bottom line hit hard by the ance sheet.™

EAST ASIA

Quake knocks out chunk of

Japanese refining capacity

PERFORMANCE JAPAN’S downstream is operating at around the earthquake and existing turnarounds.
20% below national capacity following a Reduced processing capacity is expected to lead
7.3-magnitude earthquake that struck off the to a tightening in Japanese marine fuel supplies,
country’s north-eastern coast last week. with inventories slowly being drawn down and
The earthquake struck on February 13 off the not replenished.
coast of Fukushima Prefecture, injuring around The news outlet cited unnamed market
150 people and knocking out power to almost sources as saying that some of the units that pro-
1mn households. duce marine fuel components might not resume
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has full operations for some time.
said last week’s quake was an aftershock of the Sumitomo Chemical has managed to resume
March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed normal operations at its polyethylene (PE) facil-
more than 18,000 people and led to the Fukush- ity in Chiba, Argus reported on February 18,
ima nuclear power plant (NPP) meltdown. with the company understood to be gearing up
The country’s biggest refiner, Eneos, said on to restart the polypropylene (PP) facility.
February 15 that it had shut its 145,000 barrel In other downstream news, Argus reported
per day Sendai refinery as well as its 270,000 bpd on February 17 that Idemitsu had abandoned
Negishi refinery. A spokesman told Reuters that its bid to acquire the outstanding shares in sub-
the company did not have a restart date for either sidiary Toa Oil, which manages the 70,000 bpd
facilities. Kawasaki refinery, and thereby gain full control
While Fuji Oil shut its 143,000 bpd Sodegaura of the refiner.
refinery in Chiba, Argus reported on February Idemitsu, which owns 50.12% of the com-
16 that operations had been resumed that day. pany, is understood to have failed to obtain the
Idemitsu Kosan’s 190,000 bpd Chiba refinery, minimum 2.1mn shares needed to proceed with
meanwhile, is understood to be still offline. the acquisition. Idemitsu launched its takeover
Argus reported that 720,000 bpd of capacity bid in December 2020, citing a desire to stream-
remained offline for various reasons, including line Toa’s decision-making processes.™

Week 757 18•February•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7