Sinopec Group News

Ecochlor and SINOTECH have announced a new agreement to advance long-term sales, marketing and technical assistance and to foster mutual maritime relationships worldwide.The recent signing of a Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement, in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), has formalized the alliance between Ecochlor, Inc. (USA) and SINOTECH, CCS Co., LTD (China) in sales, marketing, after-sales support and technical assistance in engineering for the SINOTECH carbon capture and storage (CCS) unit.

China's low-sulphur marine fuel exports rose by a third in April compared with March to the highest level yet after it waived export taxes for domestic refiners to meet shipping demand, Chinese customs data showed.Chinese refiners began exporting in January very low sulphur fuel oi (VLSFO) with a maximum sulphur content of 0.5% to comply with emission rules for ships from the International Maritime Organization.Data from China's General Administration of Customs showed April exports of the ship fuel reached nearly 1.43 million tonnes…

China is set to release its first-ever quotas to export very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) with total volumes of 10 million tonnes for this year, six industry officials with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.The quotas, which came in the wake of Beijing’s policy in January to offer tax sweeteners to boost local production of the fuel, paves the way for Chinese refiners to almost fully cover the demand from its coastal bonded marine fuel market of 12-14 million tonnes annually.The quotas will be issued to four state-run firms - Sinopec Group, CNPC, China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOO

Chinese buyers of Iranian oil are starting to shift their cargoes to vessels owned by National Iranian Tanker Co (NITC) for nearly all of their imports to keep supply flowing amid the re-imposition of economic sanctions by the United States.The shift demonstrates that China, Iran's biggest oil customer, wants to keep buying Iranian crude despite the sanctions, which were put back after the United States withdrew in May from a 2015 agreement to halt Iran's nuclear program.The United…

The board members of China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) has approved of a plan to order an additional 10 eco-friendly VLCCs. These vessels will be operated by CMES’ Hong Kong-based subsidiary, China VLCC Company Limited,  a tanker JV between CMES and Sinotrans & CSC Group. China VLCC  was set up in early September, will be in charge of vessel operation. CMES added that it would disclose more details on the announcement once the contracts on construction of the energy saving tankers are signed. Potential value of the deal is expected to reach around USD 920 million. China VLCC currently operates a fleet of 34 VLCCs, with an additional nine on order. In October, it sold VLCCs New Medal (297,600 dwt, built 2009) and New Founder (297,400 dwt, built 2008) to Greece’s Navios for $133m.

China Shipping Development Co. to order six liquefied natural gas (LNG) to tap the nation’s rising demand for cleaner fuel. The addition of the tankers comes as the world’s largest energy consumer plans to more than double natural gas consumption to cut its dependence on coal and oil. The six-tankship purchase will be made by a venture owned by China Petrochemical Corp., also known as Sinopec Group, China Shipping and Mitsui O.S.K Lines Ltd. (9104) and each ship will have a capacity to carry 174,000 cubic meters of natural gas. reports Bloomberg. Bloomberg was informed by Chief Financial Officer Wang Kangtian that the vessels will cost about $205 million each and the shipping company has arranged syndicated loans to finance the deal. Source: Bloomberg

Iran has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to export natural gas to Italy, to be implemented by 2011, says an IranMania report. Iran will also export gas to China by the end of the current year. China’s oil giant Sinopec Group signed a $70 billion oil field development and LNG agreement with Iran earlier this fall, according to the report. Iran will attain an annual LNG export of 36 million tons, worth $6 billion, by 2015. Source: IranMania