Page 10 - EurOil Week 24

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ExxonMobil is
reportedly delaying the
start-up of its Beaumont
refinery expansion by
a year, because of the
COVID-19 crisis.

production cuts beyond the end of June. The acted lawfully in allowing the project to cross
dust is settling on that meeting and there are under the Appalachian Trail. A lower court
many pieces to pick up and look at this week. ruling had been holding up construction on
The first signs of how Iraq may find its way the pipeline.
out of the competing demands of cutting its The ruling was considered to be the main
oil production to meet the OPEC quota, bal- obstacle for the $8bn pipeline, which will have
ancing its budget and finding agreement with the capacity to carry 1.5bn cubic feet (42.5mn
the various international oil companies (IOCs) cubic metres) per day of gas from the Marcellus
operating in the country are being seen. It is not shale to North Carolina and West Virginia.
difficult to predict that there will be many twists And the ruling is also good news for the
and turns on the road ahead. Mountain Valley pipeline, with operator EQM
One country which is not affected by the Midstream Partners also hoping to route the
OPEC quota scheme but has been massively hit project across the Appalachian Trail and some
by the underlying economic malaise is Lebanon. bodies of water regulated by the US Fish and
It is not so long ago since its government was Wildlife Service.
setting out its stall by predicting significant oil Indeed, EQM announced last week that the
and gas finds; the first search – in Block 4 – has Mountain Valley pipeline, which is around 92%
found no potentially commercial reservoirs but complete, was now expected to enter service in
a second search is due to follow later this year. early 2021.
However, events on the ground – such as massive On the Gulf Coast, meanwhile, ExxonMobil
unemployment and poverty followed by protests is reportedly delaying the start-up of its Beau-
and clashes – threaten to undermine the coun- mont refinery expansion by a year as it grapples
try’s efforts to find green shoots in its energy and with depressed demand as a result of the coro-
tourism sectors. navirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Citing sources
A notable event is the progress of integration familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported
moves in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, where QP and that the project was now anticipated to start up
Aramco have announced efforts to strengthen in 2023 instead of 2022.
their presence in their respective petrochemical The expansion will make Beaumont one of
businesses. the largest two refineries in the US, along with
Motiva Enterprises’ plant in Port Arthur, Texas.
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping It entails adding a crude distillation unit (CDU)
the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click with a capacity of 250,000 bpd, lifting the Beau-
here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor . mont refinery’s overall capacity to 619,000 bpd.
ExxonMobil had been planning the expan-
Mixed fortunes for US mega-projects sion to help accommodate its growing crude
Some good news came for two major US pipe- production in the Permian Basin. However, the
line projects this week, even as the oil and gas super-major scaled back its Permian drilling
industry continues to be affected by the mar- plans dramatically this year as the downturn
ket downturn and a major Gulf Coast refining took hold.
expansion delay has also been reported.
On June 15, the US Supreme Court upheld If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
a permit for Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast the North American oil and gas sector then please click
pipeline, ruling that the Forest Service had here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor .™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 24 18•June•2020