Petronas plans to partner Saudi Aramco to build a refinery and steam cracker complex

23-Jun-16

PETROLIAM Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has taken another important step forward in the RM60 billion Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Pengerang, south Johor, as per Corporate, The Edge Malaysia Weekly. According to an industry source, Petronas intends to partner Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) on building the refinery and a steam cracker complex that will form the backbone of RAPID. The source says the preliminary plan shows that the cost of the refinery and steam cracker plant is likely to be in the region of US$12 bln, or about RM50 bln. It is understood that Petronas and Saudi Aramco had firmed up an agreement earlier this year to facilitate the massive development.
Under the partnership, Petronas Refinery and Petrochemical Corp Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Petronas, is likely to join forces with a Saudi Aramco unit for the refinery job. Another Saudi Aramco unit could tie up with a Petronas unit — possibly Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd (PetChem) — for the development of the steam cracker complex. Petronas owns 64.35% of the publicly listed PetChem.
The plan is to build a refinery with the capacity to process 300,000 bpd of crude oil and a steam cracker plant with an annual capacity of more than 3 mln tons of petrochemicals. It is understood that a significant portion of the production from the steam cracker complex will be sold as feedstock to the surrounding Pengerang plants.