Eneos to hasten refinery consolidation as virus hits demand at home

Japanese are driving less because of the high costs of using the highways here!

A 30 minute highway drive costs double the gasoline used-not really a bargain to drive on Japanese roads...

Eneos is still in talks with Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) to collaborate on refinery projects, and it eyes renewable energy projects in Australia to make CO2-free hydrogen, he said.

Petrolimex is currently interested to acquire a stake (or probably take over in the future) in the Eneos-owned Marifu refinery in Japan's Yamaguchi Prefecture. At the same time, Eneos is owning a 9% stake in the Petrolimex. I can already imagine that both Eneos and Petrolimex already have a cross-shareholding mechanisms.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Energy/Vietnam-bid-to-invest-in-Japan-refinery-stalls

God damn, it is quite mindblowing that Japan and Vietnam are so alike. Cross-shareholding and conglomerate companies are pretty much prevalent in both cultures. Except Vietnamese companies are much more aggressive and progressive, alike the Chinese, and unlike the Japanese. Trump said at an interview in the UK, last year, as he described Vietnamese business people are very "brutal."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/06/05/trumps-flippant-talk-about-vietnam-war/

Eneos and Petrolimex are going to become cross-shareholded and cooperated for political reasons more than economic reasons.

In fact, Vietnam isn't the first case. China and Japan already have a cross-shareholding mechanism between big Japanese corporations and the CCP state-owned enterprises. Now, Japan Inc moved to Vietnam because the political risks from China are far too great.

Low carbon emissions may not be the only problem.

With the company resources, help to clean up the plastic pollution which is the by product of petroleum. Convert the old refineries into pollution free recycling plants for example and stop producing more plastic.

Even recycling plastics from automobiles makes sense.