Vitol Veteran Ian Taylor Dies at 64
Ian Taylor, who built Vitol into the world’s biggest oil trader, has died from pneumonia at the age of 64, the company said, after surviving bouts of cancer and a stroke last year.
From drinking with Fidel Castro to providing billions of dollars to Kazakhstan, Taylor was known as a risk taker who even flew to Libya during the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.
In 1995 the Oxford University graduate became CEO of Vitol, which with Britain’s blessing supplied the opposition in Benghazi with vital fuel in exchange for crude oil cargoes.
During Taylor’s time in charge, Vitol also carried on trading Iranian fuel oil in 2012, despite U.S. sanctions.
Glencore’s CEO Ivan Glasenberg said Taylor was “one of the last of the pioneers that helped transform the oil trading industry”, adding that he would be missed.
Described by his successor Russell Hardy as “exceptional”, Taylor became one of Britain’s richest businessmen and in 2007 stepped in to save Scottish fabric maker Harris Tweed Hebrides.
“He combined energy and a determination to succeed with humility, humour and humanity,” Hardy said in a statement.
A Conservative party donor who turned down the offer of a knighthood from former British Prime Minister David Cameron, Taylor was chairman of the Royal Opera House until 2019.
After starting his career at Shell in 1978 and working in South America and southeast Asia, Taylor joined privately-owned Vitol in 1985, turning the once modest Dutch fuel dealer into a global trading .operation
Norway’s Aker BP, Equinor Approve Investments
Norwegian oil companies Aker BP and Equinor said they would go ahead with several offshore projects, a day after politicians increased tax incentives for the industry.
The ruling minority government and the main opposition parties agreed to allow oil companies to shield temporarily part of their income from taxes to spur investments and save jobs.
Aker BP has awarded a 1 billion Norwegian crowns ($106.44 million) contract to oil service firm Kvaerner to build an unmanned oil platform for the Hod field.
The Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke controls both Aker BP and Kvaerner.
Aker BP had previously decided to postpone the project, citing the need to preserve cash, after the COVID-19 pandemic crushed oil demand and lowered prices.
“The Hod development in the Valhall area is the first project to be launched as a direct result of the tax changes,” Aker BP said in a statement.
Majority state-owned Equinor said it would go ahead with investment totalling almost 1.5 billion crowns to connect its offshore installations at the Gina Krog and Sleipner fields to an onshore grid to cut carbon emissions.
Equinor awarded oil service firm Aibel a 160 million crowns contract to electrify Gina Krog, and a 400 million contract to electrify Sleipner, projects that could provide hundreds of jobs.
Equinor said the tax changes, backed both by ruling and the main opposition parties, would stimulate investment and help to maintain activity in “a challenging period”.
Germany Earmarks €500mn for Electric Car Charging
The German economy ministry wants to earmark 500 million euros ($567 million) from Berlin’s bumper stimulus package to support the roll-out of charging stations for electric cars, two government sources told Reuters.
The sum, part of 2.5 billion euros specifically aimed at expanding electric vehicle infrastructure, will be targeted at private users, including households and builders, the sources said.
Berlin aims to install about one million public charging spots by 2030, up from 27,730 currently, a key step in addressing consumers’ concerns about the driving range of battery-powered cars, which so far account for just 0.6% of vehicles on German roads.
U.S. Oil Refiners' Shares Rebound
Wall Street is betting on a strong recovery from the coronavirus pandemic by pouring money into shares of U.S. oil refiners, even though demand for gasoline, jet fuel and diesel remains well below seasonal lows.
Shares of Valero Energy Corp and Marathon Petroleum Corp were trading at their highest levels since the first week of March. Brokerage Wells Fargo raised its price target on certain independent refiners, saying demand was on an upswing as lockdowns ease across the United States.
“The stock market has definitely priced in an incredibly strong recovery,” said Warren Pies, energy strategist at Ned Davis Research. “Probably more than is taking place.”
Thai PTT Delays Decision on $5.7bn Ohio Petchem Plant
Thai chemical company PTT PCL said its U.S. unit expects to decide in the next six to nine months whether to build a proposed $5.7 billion plant called an ethane cracker in Ohio, putting off a decision it had said would likely come in the first half of 2020.
“While the pandemic has prevented us from moving as quickly as we would like within our previous timeline, our best estimate is for a final investment decision by the end of this year or in the first quarter of next year,” Toasaporn Boonyapipat, President and CEO of PTT’s PTTGC America (PTTGCA) unit, said in a statement.
TEPCO Renewable to Spend $9-18bn on Green Power
TEPCO Renewable Power, a unit of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, plans to spend about 1-2 trillion yen ($9-18 billion) to develop 6-7 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind and hydroelectric power projects by 2035, its president said.
“We aim to boost our profit to 100 billion yen in 2030 from 40 billion yen now” through the investments, Seiichi Fubasami, president of TEPCO Renewable Power, told Reuters in an interview.
Its parent TEPCO, which has been struggling to restart nuclear power stations after the Fukushima disaster of 2011, said in 2018 that it will develop 2-3 GW of offshore wind power each at home and abroad, and 2-3 GW of hydroelectric power overseas to help renewable energy become a core power source.