Thai refineries to boost LPG production to offset supply shortage caused by temporary shutdown of PTT's Rayong unit

19-Aug-13

Thai refineries have been asked to boost production in order to offset a supply shortage caused by temporary shutdown of PTT’s Map Ta Phut unit at Rayong. The Ministry has requested cooperation of the refineries in reducing their LPG supply to the petrochemical sector, which will also be asked to use naptha as a raw material, instead of LPG. The meeting was held to seek ways to deal with the impact of the shutdown following a lightning strike on the facility. Last week, lightning struck the waste-heat recovery unit at the Map Ta Phut facility, which supplies natural gas to PTTGC's I4-2 plant. The PTTGC plant has an olefins production capacity of 450,000 tpa. Unit 5 of PTT's gas-separation plant is expected to take between three and five months to rsume operation. The shutdown will result in the loss of LPG supply of between 70,000 and 75,000 tons per month, which represents up to 25% of the country's overall production capacity of 300,000 tons. Around 220,000 tons of the normal production is from PTT's gas-separation plant units, and the rest from the refineries. PTT will also boost its LPG imports by 40,000 tons per month, from the present 140,000 tons, and cut the LPG supply to the petrochemical sector by 30,000 tons per month.