Aramco, Petronas form joint ventures for Malaysia’s RAPID project
Saudi Aramco and Petronas have formed two joint ventures to further the two national oil companies’ equal ownership and participation in operations of the refinery and petrochemical integrated development (RAPID) project now under construction at the $27-28-billion Pengerang integrated complex (PIC) in southeastern Johor, Malaysia (OGJ Online, June 27, 2016).
As part the finalized agreement, Aramco will hold a 50% ownership interest in RAPID ventures and assets as well as serve as primary supplier of crude feedstock for the project’s 300,000-b/d refinery, the companies said.
Specifically, Aramco will provide as much as 70% of the refinery’s feedstock requirements, while Petronas and its affiliates will supply natural gas, power, and other utilities.
While they did not identify the newly formed JVs, the companies said they will share in the rights to offtake production of the JVs on an equal basis.
Announcement of the new JVs follows the companies’ 2017 preliminary agreement to partner on RAPID (OGJ Online, Feb. 28, 2017).
Alongside helping Aramco strengthen its position and growth in Southeast Asia through crude supply and integrated downstream operations, the new venture also complements the company’s downstream growth strategy, which includes investments in a global refining and petrochemicals system of strategically located manufacturing complexes with participating refining capacity of 8-10 million b/d, said Abdulaziz Judaimi, Aramco’s senior vice-president of downstream.
Reaching peak construction this year, the project is moving into precommissioning and commissioning activities soon, according to Datuk Md Arif Mahmood, Petronas’s executive vice-president and chief executive officer of downstream.
With overall construction of PIC 87% completed, the RAPID refinery remains on track for startup in first-quarter 2019, the companies said.
Situated on part of the Malaysian government’s 22,000-acre Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex 400 km south of Kuala Lumpur, PIC’s RAPID refinery will produce Euro 5-quality fuels to help Asia Pacific’s growing need for petroleum and petrochemical products, as well as naphtha-LPG feedstock for its integrated cracker and downstream petrochemical complex (OGJ Online, Sept. 20, 2016).
PIC also will house six associated facilities, including the Pengerang cogeneration plant, an LNG regasification terminal, an air-separation unit, a raw-water supply project, a deepwater terminal, and centralized-shared utilities and installations.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
