Coal news and updates

Pet coke availability in India may ease post-Dec 2014

April 14: With the new refinery in Saudi Arabia slated to be in place by December 2014, and which aims to produce around 2 million tons (mt) of fuel-grade petroleum coke per annum, supply of the material is set to ease in the Asian markets, particularly in India, said industry sources.

The Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company (YASREF), a joint venture of Saudi Aramco and China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec), is set to commence petroleum coke production from its proposed refinery in the fourth quarter of 2014, they said.

Before pet coke production from YASREF commences, production from another newly built refinery - Saudi Aramco Total Refinery & Petrochemicals Company (Satorp), at Jubail in Saudi Arabia, is likely to hit the market sometime in the second quarter of 2014.

Satorp is a joint venture of Saudi Aramco and Total Refinery.

Incidentally, production from Satorp has already commenced, but pet coke despatches from the refinery have not yet commenced because the facility (conveyor belt) for transportation of the material from the refinery to the nearby port is yet to come into operation.

"Satorp started making pet coke way back in December 2013 - January 2014, but is yet to start despatches because it is yet to develop its loading facilities up to the ports because of the lack of a conveyor belt loading facility," an official from a leading Indian pet coke consuming company said.

"Satorp has pet coke stocks of around 400,000 tons as on April 4, 2014 as it produces daily, but it is unable to sell because it does not have loading facilities at present," the official added.

Incidentally, both YASREF and Satorp each has a capacity to produce around 2.0 million tons of pet coke annually, which means an additional 4 mt of pet coke will be available after December 2014.

ICMW understands that once products from both YASREF and Satorp come to the market, a major share of these will find their way to India because for both refineries, India would be a natural and the nearest market.

"Products from the Saudi Arabian refineries and also from MRPL, which started selling pet coke from its newly commissioned facilities, will significantly ease availability in the Indian market and, in turn, may impact prices," an official with a leading cement company said.

MRPL started selling pet coke from the first week of April even as it is currently operating at less than half of its capacity of around 80,000 tons per month.