Tag Archives: refining

Kazakhstan’s KMG makes refining deal

FEB. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — KMG EP, Kazmunaigas’ subsidiary dedicated to exploration and production, said in a statement it obtained a price increase for oil it ships to refineries at Atyrau and Pavlodar. KMG RM, another Kazmunaigas subsidiary which manages the refineries, will now pay 74% more for shipments of oil to its refinery at Aktau and 16% more for shipments to its refinery at Pavlodar than it did in 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

Business comment: Refinery deals

FEB. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dealings at Kazakhstan’s state-owned energy company Kazmunaigas can give a deep insight into the country’s oil sector.

Last week, KMG EP, Kazmunaigas’ subsidiary dedicated to exploration and production, said in a statement it obtained a price increase for the oil it shipped in 2015 to the refineries of Atyrau and Pavlodar.

KMG RM, another Kazmunaigas subsidiary which manages the refineries, will now pay 37,000 tenge (around $105) per tonne of oil delivered to both refineries in 2015. This represents an increase of 74% in the case of the Atyrau refinery and 16% for Pavlodar, compared to an earlier agreement, which had not been approved by KMG EP’s independent directors.

KMG EP, which produces around 12m tonnes/year, sends around 2m tonnes to the Atyrau and Pavlodar refineries annually.

But the picture seems much less rosy for 2016. KMG EP said it will receive only 17,100 tenge/tonne ($48) from Atyrau and 31,923 tenge/tonne ($91) from Pavlodar this year, a steep fall from 2015’s revised prices. Although the company said these figures are not yet approved by its independent directors, this foreshadows another set of lengthy negotiations to bring the price back up.

The internal battle for profit margins within Kazmunaigas in this era of low oil prices looks like a battle for scraps. And in 2016, Kazakhstan forecasts a fall in production and lower prices for crude oil to be refined.

This may dent the budget of KMG EP, although it will be bolstered, overall, by a devaluation in the tenge. It earns cash in US dollars and pays most of its workers in tenge.

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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

First petrol from Iran arrives in Tajikistan

FEB. 3 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Iran shipped its first batch of petrol to Tajikistan, a deal both countries credited to the lifting of Western sanctions.

It’s also, importantly, more evidence of the impact that post-sanctions Iran is having on Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Reports from across the region have shown a sharp increase in trade with Iran since the US and the European Union lifted sanctions on Jan. 16.

These deals have included an agreement with Kazakh airline Air Astana, grPain agreements with Kazakhstan, trade arrangements with Armenia and the arrival of the first train, via Central Asia, direct from China in Iran.

But it is, perhaps, petrol exports to the Central Asia/South Caucasus region where Iran can have the biggest impact.

Officials from the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company told local media the shipment of petrol to Tajikistan measured 2.9m litres, a volume they could maintain on a daily basis. If it did send this amount of petrol to Tajikistan every day, Iran’s petrol exports would measure around 750,000 tonnes a year. This roughly equals Tajikistan’s total current consumption. It had previously imported most of its petrol from Russia.

Mohammad-Mehdi Gharaei, director of the distribution company, told media that Tajikistan had asked for the petrol products. “In view of the [post-sanctions] conditions, Tajikistan requested in early February to purchase Iranian gasoline,” he said.

Iran sent petrol to Tajikistan on trucks through Afghanistan.

Iran is a net importer of petrol. This, though, will change later this year when a new super-sized refinery opens on the Persian Gulf. This refinery will turn Iran into a petrol exporter and Central Asia and the South Caucasus will be a prime target market. They just don’t have enough refinery capacity.

Iman Nasseri, of FGE energy consultancy in London, said Iran is looking to capture market share.

“In the post-sanctions era we expect more shipments from Iran. Most of these might have been discussed and negotiated before sanctions were lifted,” Mr Nasseri told The Bulletin.

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

China expresses interest in Kazakh Mangistau

FEB. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Alik Aidarbayev, head of the Mangistau region of western Kazakhstan, said that only China has expressed serious interest in paying for the construction of a new oil refinery. The Mangistau region has been working on plans to build Kazakhstan’s fourth refinery for years. Mr Aidarbayev’s comments are important because they show both the financial power of China and the relative weakness of Russia. Kazakhstan has been looking to boost its refinery capacity for some time. It currently has three refineries.

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Kyrgyzstan’s tax police raids Chinese refinery

JAN. 20 2016, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz police raided the China-run Junda oil refinery in the north of the country and accused it of evading 54.5m som ($716,000) in taxes, charges that will strain Kyrgyzstan-China relations.

During the raid, police detained the company’s deputy director Lin Yu-shan and placed its accountant, Lyudmila Marchenko, under house arrest.

Baktybek Ashirov, head of the Kyrgyz state service for combating economic crimes, told Parliament that the Junda refinery had paid 30m som ($400,000) in taxes but that was far below what it should have paid.

“The inspections showed that they should have paid twice as much, that is, there was hiding of information and an underestimation of production,” he was quoted as saying by local media.

Junda hasn’t commented.

For foreign investors in Kyrgyzstan, the charges are a worry. They have previously complained that local elite and the authorities have colluded to pressure various businesses into paying more tax, fines or giving up equity stakes in projects.

And the Junda refinery, built by the China Petrol Company for $430m, has seemingly had to deal with a large dose of misfortune since opening in January 2014.

First, protests by locals complaining of poor air quality forced it to stop production, then crude oil supplies dropped so low that it had to limit output.

The authorities said that despite the raid and the arrests, the Junda oil refinery, one of two in Kyrgyzstan, was operating as normal.

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(News report from Issue No. 264, published on Jan. 22 2016)

ArmOil to build $35m oil refinery in Armenia

DEC. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — ArmOil, a privately-owned Armenian oil company, will finance the construction of the first oil refinery in the country, a move that would make Armenia less dependent on Russian refined products.

The company will pay for the $35m refinery, which would be built in Yeghvard, a town 20 km north of Yerevan.

Karen Chshmarityan, Armenia’s minister of economy, said the deal will include the construction of a storage facility and a small refinery.

“At the initial stage the company will build a storage facility for 4,000 tonnes of oil products and then equip it with a laboratory, and in 2016 the company will build a small refinery,” Mr Chshmarityan said.

ArmOil, owned by a Russian-Armenian group of businessmen, was founded in 2013 and does not publicly disclose company data.

Armenia has wanted to build an oil refinery for more than a decade. From 1999 to 2007, Russian energy company Gazprom said it was considering building a refinery but the plan was scrapped.

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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

China buys controlling stake in major Kazmunaigas subsidiary

DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — China’s CEFC energy company will buy a controlling stake in KMG Inter- national, a subsidiary of Kazmunaigas, in a deal that helps Kazakhstan raise cash but also rids Western investors of one of the more interesting companies previously offered up by Kazakh officials as a potential IPO target.

The deal, which will give CEFC a 51% share in the Netherlands-based company, is valued at between $500m and $1b, sources told Reuters.

KMG International, formerly called Rompetrol, owns the Petromidia Navodari refinery and hundreds of petrol stations in Romania, Georgia, Bulgaria and Moldova.

It is affiliated with Switzerland- based KMG Trading, which secured a $3b deal in December with Vitol as the buyer of future oil shipments from Kazmunaigas’ 20% share of the Tengizchevroil consortium.

Neither KMG International nor KMG Trading could be reached for comment.

Kazmunaigas has unsuccessfully tried to sell off Rompetrol-owned assets over the past few years.

Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund which owns Kazmunaigas, had said it wanted to sell KMG International in a round of privatisation set for 2016. Now, the privatisation of KMG International seems to have fallen out of this IPO bucket list.

Kazakhstan has said it wants to sell off state-owned companies involved in midstream and downstream operations in an effort to raise much-needed cash to restore financial stability during what has become a sustained downturn in oil prices.

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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

Chinese Kyrgyz refinery opens

NOV. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A $60m Chinese-built oil refinery opened in Tokmok in the north of Kyrgyzstan, the second refinery that China has constructed in the country. Both the Chinese-refineries will rely on Russian crude oil to operate. Kyrgyzstan has been facing a shortage of refined petrol products.

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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

China signs deal on Kazakh refinery

NOV. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – China Petroleum Engineering & Construction signed a deal with Kazakhstan’s state-owned Kazmunaigas to modernise the oil refinery at Shymkent, south Kazakhstan. The upgrade will also mean the refinery’s capacity increases to 6m tonnes from 5.25m tonnes. Kazakhstan needs to increase its refinery capacity.

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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Kazakhstan’s KMG invests in Romania

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — KMG International, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state-owned energy company Kazmunaigas, will invest $6m in the modernisation of the Petromidia Navodari refinery in Romania. KMG International owns Rompetrol. The Petromidia refinery has a capacity of 5m tonnes/year and is located just north of Constanta, Romania’s main Black Sea port. The upgrade will be completed by 2018.

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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)