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Contents December 2020 14 08 34 54 62 8 Five commodity themes for 2021 24 China’s long march to zero carbon 42 Insight from Washington 60 Insight from Brussels From COVID-19 impacts to disruptive technology: China is targeting net-zero emissions by 2060, but its coal-heavy California plans to phase out sales of new ICE cars by 2035, The European Commission is building a plan to slash the S&P Global Platts president Martin Fraenkel on what’s energy system will be hard to decarbonize but how quickly can EVs replace them? bloc’s fossil fuel demand, to meet an ambitious timetable for in store for commodities in 2021 carbon neutrality 14 Energy on the ballot 32 Insight from Shanghai 46 Insight Conversation: Hussain Sultan Al Junaidy 62 The “U” factor Ukraine’s gas market is becoming more integrated The results of the US election suggest a patchwork of China is pressing ahead with gas sector liberalization, improving The founder and former CEO of Emirates National Oil Company with its Western neighbours’. What does it mean for energy policy across states, while Joe Biden’s climate goals access to pipelines and targeting competitive markets and looks back on his career and discusses the development of gas hubs in Southern and Eastern Europe? may face obstacles pricing Dubai’s oil sector 19 Event Calendar 2021 34 Preparing for takeoff 50 Insight from Dubai 70 The 2020 Energy Transition Award Events to watch in the coming year by commodity, spanning key Despite a punishing year for aviation, the sector is beginning to Bleak oil demand outlooks are pushing Middle Eastern countries S&P Global Trucost recognizes power companies that elections, industry meetings, and energy policy announcements embrace sustainable aviation fuels to focus investment on higher-growth petrochemicals are showing strongest leadership in decarbonization and sustainability 20 Paradigm shift 40 US refiners embrace renewable fuel 54 Carbon commitment 76 S&P Global Platts Global Energy Awards S&P Global Platts’ global director of analytics, Chris Midgley, Mapping the boom in US refinery conversions that is set to The EU carbon market is due to be transformed in the coming looks back at 2020 and considers key transformations in drive up production of renewable diesel and jet fuel years as regulations on free allowances and auction volumes Read about this year’s winners, their standout achievements commodity markets are tightened up in a turbulent year for commodities, and our judges’ commentary on the selections 4 Insight December 2020 December 2020 Insight 5 Refineries Regions Editor’s Note Explore Insight Jamnagar Europe OPEC Africa Russia/ Ulsan Central Asia Asia- Middle Pacific East Ruwais North Latin America/ America Caribbean Port Arthur Grades Zhenhai Key Platts Benchmarks Light Light sweet sour Pernis Medium Medium Our website spglobal.com/platts contains an extensive selection of free news, videos, podcasts sweet sour Coming to the end of a full year living with a global pandemic, thoughts are turning to the AGS Dated Urals Dubai Oman Brent Paraguana Heavy Heavy future, not least the hope of a quick rollout of promising vaccines that could gradually restore and special reports about energy and commodities. Here’s a selection of highlights sweet sour lives to normality in 2021. Trg Cos ADCo Nio EF As QtL Pos Lav Kir Kw BasHvy 0.00% 0.04% 0.11% 0.13% 0.17% 0.18% 1.22% 1.67% 1.93% 2.23% 2.52% 4.20% 73.10° 48.20° 58.40° 40.00° 45.20° 48.50° 41.30° 31.50° 34.00° 34.30° 31.00° 23.60° Alg Ag Sah QI WTIM Ose Nem SP LLS ES WTI Mas CPC SiL UmL Mb Ol ArEL Ur Uza Ban ArM My For the energy sector as for most others, it has been a year of upheaval that has required 0.00% 0.04% 0.10% 0.13% 0.15% 0.20% 0.21% 0.26% 0.33% 0.37% 0.42% 0.51% 0.54% 0.57% 0.70% 0.79% 0.89% 1.00% 1.44% 1.84% 2.45% 2.54% 3.33% 68.70° 47.90° 43.20° 36.00° 42.00° 39.60° 39.80° 58.40° 36.70° 36.70° 40.80° 34.10° 46.20° 35.10° 38.90° 40.20° 38.70° 39.20° 31.10° 33.90° 31.80° 30.90° 21.80° companies and individuals to dig deep and respond with agility and ingenuity. With NWSC Nk Ba Cab BH Tro Eko QDFC Dr Pl BNB TEN Fo ESPO FG Bur Ji Das Om ArL Db BasL KL 0.01% 0.04% 0.10% 0.12% 0.17% 0.18% 0.21% 0.26% 0.29% 0.37% 0.40% 0.43% 0.54% 0.55% 0.66% 0.87% 0.87% 1.11% 1.38% 1.96% 2.13% 3.16% 3.89% demand dented by lockdowns, for many producers and sellers, scaling back has been the 63.00° 42.40° 42.80° 32.60° 39.30° 34.50° 38.90° 57.00° 33.00° 33.20° 37.50° 33.80° 37.30° 34.70° 73.10° 32.30° 32.30° 39.20° 30.50° 33.30° 30.40° 28.80° 21.30° order of the day. EFC BHo Sha Daq Az BL Jb Zaf Esp Lul Ko Med TN Lz Og JSv Th Eu Ma Sue AlS ArH WCS 0.04% 0.04% 0.09% 0.11% 0.14% 0.18% 0.25% 0.25% 0.33% 0.35% 0.37% 0.47% 0.52% 0.51% 0.75% 0.80% 0.90% 1.03% 1.82% 1.64% 2.37% 2.75% 3.59% 55.00° 38.60° 42.20° 32.30° 35.00° 32.80° 37.60° 30.90° 32.20° 30.50° 31.70° 32.90° 34.20° 32.10° 35.60° 28.00° 32.30° 35.40° 30.00° 29.90° 28.10° 27.80° 20.90° Alb Dul Aga Chm Er Eg Gal For WR Dj Paz Gir Hi Gr Hu Sat Mos HBI Cu IrHvy VnMdm Miss Sor Concurrently, there is the sense that energy transition will not wait – if anything, it must speed 0.02% 0.08% 0.10% 0.13% 0.16% 0.17% 0.23% 0.28% 0.31% 0.34% 0.41% 0.42% 0.53% 0.59% 0.64% 0.81% 0.87% 1.15% 1.38% 1.77% 1.85% 2.95% 3.38% 51.70° 37.60° 37.40° 26.90° 34.80° 27.30° 36.30° 30.30° 30.00° 27.60° 25.60° 29.70° 33.00° 29.00° 28.30° 27.00° 28.30° 35.20° 28.80° 29.50° 27.00° 27.60° 19.20° up. The signals are everywhere, from decarbonization pledges on the part of global energy ArSL Rab Se Dar Escr CS CLOV Us Mer VG Eb Sch Hd RnHvy Cpt Vs Lo IrL Ca Or VH1 RGh D16 0.04% 0.07% 0.09% 0.12% 0.17% 0.20% 0.25% 0.27% 0.32% 0.33% 0.40% 0.44% 0.53% 0.61% 0.70% 0.83% 0.87% 1.46% 1.41% 1.63% 1.85% 2.50% 4.10% Emma Slawinski companies and governments, to national plans and stimulus funding for a green and high- 50.60° 33.40° 34.50° 25.00° 33.50° 26.30° 32.80° 29.00° 28.80° 17.00° 19.80° 24.90° 24.40° 22.80° 19.10° 24.30° 23.30° 33.60° 17.50° 23.30° 23.50° 24.00° 16.00° Tap Dob Min Py Co Esc Bo Qin Boz Yom Vnc Cl Dal Juba Kr Sh Li Al Rub Per Na VH2 Sq tech revolution.