PdV crude supply, petchems impacted by gas line blast

Market: Fertilizers, Natural gas, Oil products, Petrochemicals
23/03/21

A natural gas pipeline blast in eastern Venezuela is having far-reaching impact on the country's crude and petrochemical operations, highlighting the role of gas in sustaining the fragile national oil industry.

By knocking out the Pigap 2 gas compression complex, the 20 March blast shut in around 20,000 b/d of Venezuelan state-owned PdV's Santa Barbara light crude production for up to six weeks, according to multiple incident reports seen by Argus.

The blast took down up to 1bn cf/d of associated gas production as well.

One of Venezuela's legacy grades, 39°API Santa Barbara crude is used for blending with extra-heavy crude from the Orinoco oil belt to produce 16°API Merey for export.

The incident took place within a dense grid of crude and gas pipelines and valves that transports gas to Pigap 2 where it is compressed and reinjected into oil fields.

The grid connected to the blast-damaged 36-inch gas pipeline also directs light crude and associated gas to Orinoco heavy crude blending, upgrading and petrochemical plants at the Jose complex on the coast of Anzoategui state. Among the plants that have been shut down or curtailed for lack of gas are Mitsubishi-led methanol producer Metor, Eni-led Supermetanol and fertilizer producer Fertinitro led by state-owned Pequiven.

A senior PdV eastern division official describes the gas and crude pipeline grid where the blast occurred as "critical to the company's upstream crude and gas operations in Monagas."

A preliminary damage assessment of the ruptured gas pipeline said repairs could take up to six weeks, but the PdV manager said repairs could be completed in less than a month. "We hope to restart the 36-inch gas pipeline by 15 April," he said.

The accident is the latest setback for PdV, which had tentatively recovered its production to more than 500,000 b/d in recent weeks. The government of President Nicolas Maduro routinely blames US sanctions and sabotage for industrial accidents.

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22/11/24

Cop 29 goes into overtime on finance deadlock

Developing countries' discontent over the climate finance offer is meeting a muted response, writes Caroline Varin Baku, 22 November (Argus) — As the UN Cop 29 climate conference went into overtime, early reactions of consternation towards a new climate finance draft quickly gave way to studious silence, and some new numbers floated by developing nations. Parties are negotiating a new collective quantified goal — or climate finance target — building on the $100bn/yr that developed countries agreed to deliver to developing countries over 2020-25. The updated draft of the new finance goal text — the centrepiece of this Cop — proposes a figure of $250bn/yr by 2035, "from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources". This is the developed country parties' submission, the Cop 29 presidency acknowledged. Developing nations have been waiting for this number for months, and calling on developed economies to come up with one throughout this summit. They rejected the offer instantly. "The [$250bn/yr] offered by developed countries is a spit in the face of vulnerable nations like mine," Panama's lead climate negotiator, Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, said. Negotiating group the Alliance of Small Island States called it "a cap that will severely stagnate climate action efforts". The African Group of Negotiators and Colombia called it "unacceptable". This is far off the mark for developing economies, which earlier this week floated numbers of $440bn-600bn/yr for a public finance layer. They also called for $1.3 trillion/yr in total climate finance from developed countries, a sum which the new text instead calls for "all actors" to work toward. China reiterated on 21 November that "the voluntary support" of the global south was not to be counted towards the goal. A UN-mandated expert group indicated that the figure put forward by developed countries "is too low" and not consistent with the Paris Agreement goals. The new finance goal for developing countries, based on components that it covers, should commit developed countries to provide at least $300bn/yr by 2030 and $390bn/yr by 2035, it said. Brazil indicated that it is now pushing for these targets. The final amount for the new finance goal could potentially be around $300bn-350bn/yr, a Somalian delegate told Argus . A goal of $300bn/yr by 2035 is achievable with projected finance, further reforms and shareholder support at multilateral development banks (MDBs), and some growth in bilateral funding, climate think-tank WRI's finance programme director, Melanie Robinson, said. "Going beyond [$300bn/yr] would even be possible if a high proportion of developing countries' share of MDB finance is included," she added. All eyes turn to the EU Unsurprisingly, developed nations offered more muted responses. "It has been a significant lift over the past decade to meet the prior goal [of $100bn/yr]," a senior US official said, and the new goal will require even more ambition and "extraordinary reach". The US has just achieved its target to provide $11bn/yr in climate finance under the Paris climate agreement by 2024. But US climate funding is likely to dry up once president-elect Donald Trump, a climate sceptic who withdrew the US from the Paris accord during his first term, takes office. Norway simply told Argus that the delegation was "happier" with the text. The EU has stayed silent, with all eyes on the bloc as the US' influence wanes. The EU contributed €28.6bn ($29.8bn) in climate finance from public budgets in 2023. Developed nations expressed frustration towards the lack of progress on mitigation — actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Mentions of fossil fuels have been removed from new draft texts, including "transitioning away" from fossil fuels. This could still represent a potential red line for them. Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

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Opinion: Bridging the divide

22/11/24

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22/11/24

Opinion: Bridging the divide

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Cop: Brazil eyes $300bn/yr for climate finance goal

22/11/24

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22/11/24

Cop: Brazil eyes $300bn/yr for climate finance goal

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Cop: Drafts point to trade-off on finance, fossil fuels

22/11/24

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22/11/24

Cop: Drafts point to trade-off on finance, fossil fuels

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Bangladesh issues new phosphate tenders

22/11/24

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22/11/24

Bangladesh issues new phosphate tenders

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