Rajesh Chopra
18 posts by Rajesh
- Serbia's Pančevo refinery faces shutdown risk as JANAF Pipeline disruption threatens crude cupply Serbia's only operating refinery, Pančevo (96 kbd), faces potential shutdown risk following the 6 November disruption to the JANAF crude pipeline in Croatia that is the principal route of crude supply to refinery making the refinery highly vulnerable to prolonged pipeline disruptions. Refinery has requested access to government crude and diesel reserves. Alternative crude-supply options are limited, although domestic crude, inventories and strategic reserves could temporarily support operations. A prolonged shutdown could increase Serbian diesel and gasoline imports, potentially strengthening Southeast European product premiums and disrupting domestic petrochemical feedstock supply. Refining, Diesel, serbia
- Bulgaria's only refinery trips on power outage - Rapid recovery eases fuel-supply risks, but FCC restart remains critical An external power-system failure disrupted Bulgaria's largest refinery on November 9. Most processing units have since restarted, but catalytic cracking operations had not fully normalised as of November 10.
- Neste Porwoo Refinery restaring up post turnaround - support product markets? Neste's 206 KBD Porvoo refinery completed its 9 week long maintenance turnaround on 3 October and initiated restart activities of process units. E. Oil Refining
- Congo’s CORAF refinery modernization project - long way to go? SOCAR Downstream has been appointed project management consultant for Congo’s CORAF refinery modernization project. CORAF refinery, located in Pointe-Noire, is Congo’s only refinery. Operational since 1982 and with a design capacity of ~27 KBD, refinery is owned by National… E. Oil Refining
- Fire at Saudi Aramco Riyadh refinery - caused by Houthis attack? impact on markets? A fire broke out at Saudi Aramco's Riyadh refinery on Saturday. Eyewitness reported fire/plume of smoke near the refinery area Subsequently, Houthis claimed to have attacked Riyadh refinery using ballistic missiles and drones as a retailation attack for Saudi airstrikes on… Refinery Outages
- Mangalore Refinery cancels fuel export tenders after fire incident - tightens diesel market? India's state-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) cancelled three spot export tenders for refined fuels after a fire incident at its 300KBD refinery processing unit on 30th Sept. The incident involving rupture occurred in its Coker hydrotreater unit cold high… India Refining
- Japan refinery runs increase by 7% - positive news for product markets? Japan's refinery throughput increased 7% year on year in September as facilities continued to recover from maintenance and earlier outages. As per latest weekly data, the refinery runs are 2.4 mbd average in Sep. This is very much the level of crude imports. Oil Watch - Japan
- No respite in sight for product markets? Ukraine continues to strike Russian refineries - Volgograd refinery reported fire after overnight strikes Lukoil's Volgograd refinery reported fire after getting struck overnight In a related news, President Trump reiterated Ukraianin attacks on Russain refineries as the main reason behind high diesel prices in US instead of US war with Iran. Russia-Ukraine Energy War
- US PADD2 refinery runs sharp decline in September - to continue or recover? Latest EIA release on 30 September, covering the week ending 25 September, indicated a sharp decline in US PADD2 refinery runs in last 2 weeks despite high diesel cracks. US Oil Refining
- IOCL Haldia refinery expansion plan -- long way to go! Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) plan to expand its Haldia refinery in West Bengal got a fresh impetus with allocation of land by state goveremnet. IOC has long sought the land parcel to expand the refinery and add downstream petrochemical facilities, similar to its Paradip… Petrochemicals
- Dangote refinery record run eases Nigeria product imports - can it ease global diesel markets too? Dangote’s reported August throughput rose to 105.21% of the stated 700,000 b/d capacity. Nigerian crude deliveries increased to 683,000 b/d, easing feedstock constraints. Domestic petrol deliveries increased 39% to 35.87 million litres/day, supplying roughly 71% of Nigeria’s… E. Oil Refining
- Ukraine strikes on Russian Refineries - will continue or scale down?? Ukaraine president Zelensky reportedly told US president Trump that Ukraine is ready to reduce drone strikes on Russian oil refineries. Trump said in a news interview that Zelensky has responded positively when asked to ease attacks. Trump had earlier linked the refinery attacks… Russia-Ukraine Energy War
- Libya Zawiya refinery restarts as Sharara feed returns: Easing Product-supply risk Libya’s NOC restarted its refining unit at Zawiya refinery on September 27 after crude flows resumed through the Sharara–Zawiya pipeline. The crude flows through the pipeline was forcibly stopped by closing valve on September 21 due to an industrial protest. NOC says flows are… Refining & Products
- SAPREF 2.0 - South Africa aiming to revive its largest refinery in Durban - will it go ahead? South Africa is aiming to revive its state-owned largest SAPREF refinery in Durban that is idling since 2022 after severe flooding damaged the facilities. SA acquired this refinery from BP and Shell in 2024 for a symbolic 1 rand. Central Energy Fund (CEF) estimated $7.15 billion… Refining
- Aster lifts force majeure on its 1.1Mtpa ethylene cracker in Singapore – bearish for SEA petchem? Aster confirmed that it has lifted force majeure (FM) on its 1.1 Mtpa ethylene cracker at Pulau Bukom. The measures were put in place on 6th March after Middle East disruptions constrained feedstock deliveries. Aster is a joint venture between Indonesia’s Chandra Asri and Swiss… Petrochemicals
- East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) nearing completion EACOP pipeline owned by TotalEnergies (62%), UNOC (15%), TPDC (15%), CNOOC (8%) reached 92.7% completion. Pipeline length : ~ 1440 kms. running from Uganda to Tanga port (Indian Ocean) in Tanzania. Capacity : ~ 216 KBD It will be used to transport Uganda’s newly branded export… Crude Pipeline
- India’s Refining Trade-Off - LPG First, Petrochemicals Next - Round 2? Bullish Petchem Indian refiners have increased LPG production in September to about 44,000 tonnes/day, which is nearly 20% above August average production. The increase was done to meet rising festive season demand amid continued supply disruptions from ME that historically has been the main… India Refining
- Ukraine drone strikes continue: Rosneft Kuibyshev Refinery struck again Rosneft’s Kuibyshev refinery in Samara was struck again by Ukraine drones on 22 September triggering a large fire Refinery was shutdown after earlier drone attacks on 10th June resulted in shudown of both crude distillation units. Kuibyshev refinery has crude processing capacity… Refinery Outages