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 Petronas will announce plans to invest around RM50 billion in an integrated downstream oil and gas complex in Pengerang, Johor, reliable sources said. Dubbed Rapid or Refinery And Petrochemical Integrated Development, the project is aimed at building something “larger than Kertih” and will eventually include multinational oil and gas companies as joint-venture partners.
The integrated development will not only include oil
refining and petrochemical activities, but include a gas power plant and
other “supportive industries” said sources. Rapid is a project identified in the Economic Transformation Programme
(ETP), which is led by the Performance Management & Delivery Unit
(Pemandu).
One of the reasons why Pengerang was chosen is because its waters can
reach depths of more than 20m, which is what is needed for very large
crude carriers (VLCC) and ultra large crude carriers.
The Johor government will be a joint-venture partner of the project and will provide the land.
Part of the thinking behind Rapid was to replicate what Singapore has
already done successfully, sources said. Singapore's oil refining
businesses only started around 10 years ago.
Singapore has an export refining capacity of 1.3 million barrels per
day, compared with Malaysia's 560,000 barrels per day, according to the
ETP roadmap.
Singapore Refining Company Pte Ltd, which operates a refinery on Jurong
Island, is capable of processing 290,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Other major refineries in Singapore include ExxonMobil's refinery in
Jurong that process about 605,000 barrels of crude per day and Shell's
Pulau Bukom Refinery with some 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
The Petronas Kertih Refinery is the national oil company's first oil
refinery in Malaysia, and processes 49,000 barrels of Malaysian light,
sweet crude oil per day.
In total, Petronas owns and operates four refineries (three in Malaysia
and one in South Africa) with a total refining capacity of more than
448,000 barrels per day.
PETROLWORLD 11/05/2011
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