Petron may augment capital expenditure by US$300 mln for phase 2 of Master Refinery Plan

05-Aug-08

Petron Corp. of Philippines may need to increase capital expenditure by US$300 mln for its refinery expansion program, which is a part of phase-2 of the US$1.5 bln Master Refinery Plan (MRP). The additional outlay required is attributed to the rising raw material and construction costs. According to the initial plan, US$300 mln have been absorbed for the completion of the Petro Fluidized Catalytic Cracker (PetroFCC) and Propylene Recovery Unit (PRU) in its Bataan refinery which is part of the phase-1 of a program that aims to diversify the company's operations into petrochemicals. The PetroFCC has a conversion capacity of 19,000 bpd while the PRU will produce 140,000 metric tons of propylene a year. PetroFCC, will be one-of-its-kind cracking unit in the world which converts black products (fuel oil) to high-value white products (LPG, gasoline, diesel etc.) and enables the extraction of the petrochemical feedstock propylene. Further, the PRU is used to convert the purified propylene steam into petrochemical grade propylene. Post completion of the BTX (benzene, toluene, xylene) production unit in phase-1, Petron wishes to spring into phase-2 of the Master Refinery Plan with a purpose of augmenting the conversion capacity and petrochemical feedstock production.