Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 11 2022

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

Braskem Idesa CEO says disputes

with Pemex have been resolved

STEFAN Lepecki, the CEO of the Brazil- we continue to be very competitive for North
ian-Mexican joint venture Braskem-Idesa (BI), America.”
said last week that his company had finally He also indicated that the new deal with
resolved its ongoing disputes with Mexico’s Pemex cleared the way for BI to invest $150mn
national oil company (NOC) Pemex. in the expansion of Etileno XXI. The funds will
In an interview with Bloomberg, Lepecki be used to increase the plant’s production capac-
declared that the two sides were no longer at ity by 20% by 2025, he said.
odds with each other. “We’ve established a new This expansion project is due to be com-
relationship with the government and Pemex,” pleted shortly after BI completes a $400mn ter-
he said. “Last year was a very important year for minal that will be capable of importing 65,000
Braskem Idesa. We had an important dialog with barrels per day (bpd) of ethane, enough to meet
Pemex, and we finally solved the issue around 100% of Etileno XXI’s current feedstock needs.
the supply contract. We have a clear strategy The joint venture hopes eventually to expand the
based on this new agreement with Pemex.” terminal, which is currently housing temporary
The CEO further explained that BI had facilities that can handle about 20,000 bpd of
struck an agreement on the pricing issues that imports for delivery to Etileno XXI. (Pemex
led Pemex to suspend ethane shipments to the covers the plant’s remaining needs, delivering
Etileno XXI polyethylene plant, a component of another 30,000-40,000 bpd of ethane.) ™
the company’s Nanchital petrochemical com-
plex in Veracruz State, in late 2020. He did not
reveal the details of this agreement but indicated
that BI was paying more for feedstock than it had
done previously. (Mexico’s President Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador took Pemex’s side in the
pricing dispute, claiming that the joint venture
was only paying 25% of the world market price
for the ethane it was receiving from the NOC.)
“For sure, if you compare what used to be
our agreement in the past and the new one,
you have a loss here,” Lepecki told Bloomberg.
“To compare with the previous agreement, the
reality is another one. But in terms of pricing, BI will invest $150mn in the expansion of Etileno XXI (Photo: Braskem Idesa)

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Rowley: High oil prices won’t have much

positive impact on Trinidad and Tobago

KEITH Rowley, the prime minister of Trinidad about a potential windfall for Trinidad and
and Tobago, said last week that he did not expect Tobago, which does produce some oil, he noted.
the country to benefit much from the recent He pointed out, though, that this specula-
increase in global energy prices. tion was misplaced. For one thing, he said, the
Speaking on the “Conversations with the country’s crude production levels have actually
Prime Minister” television programme, Row- declined over time.
ley noted that world crude oil prices had shot For another, he said, Trinidad and Tobago is
up above $100 per barrel following the Rus- actually a net importer, since it cannot produce
sian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The enough refined petroleum products to meet its
increase has led some observers to speculate own needs.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 11 17•March•2022