ChemOne advances development of Malaysian petrochemicals complex

Singapore-based Pengerang Energy Complex Sdn. Bhd. (PEC) has secured necessary financing from five export credit agencies across North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific, as well as entities of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), to complete construction of developer ChemOne Group’s integrated condensate splitter and aromatics complex on a 250-acre site in the Pengerang Industrial Park (PIP) situated within the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC)—Malaysia’s regional oil and gas hub—in Johor.

As part of a Dec. 16 agreement, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Euler Hermes AG, Italian Export Credit Agency (SACE), Compañía Española de Seguros de Crédito a la Exportación, Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Bhd. (EXIM Bank Malaysia) and IsDB signed terms with PEC for $3.5 billion in financing for the company to advance construction of the grassroots complex, EXIM Bank Malaysia said as part of a joint release.

“We are grateful for the confidence our partners have shown in this project, and the discussions held today will enable us to fully conclude the debt financing for the project within the coming few months and move to commencement of construction for this global benchmark-setting project by the middle of next year,” said Alwyn Bowden, PEC’s chief executive officer.

With planning and engineering on the project already under way and financing now in place, start of construction on the complex is currently scheduled to begin in mid-2025 for targeted completion and commissioning in fourth-quarter 2028, the parties said.

Designed to process 6.5 million tonnes/year (tpy; about 150,000 b/d) of condensate and naphtha feedstock, the PEC will use Honeywell UOP LLC’s the latest-generation LD Parex aromatics technology to enable reduced energy consumption, maximum aromatics production, increased feedstock flexibility, as well as lower capital and energy costs, according to PEC.
As of mid-December 2024, the complex will be equipped to produce 2.6 million tpy of aromatics and 3 million tpy of finished oil products, PEC said.

The complex’s main condensate splitter will produce heavy naphtha as a primary feedstock for a downstream aromatics plant, with hydrogen produced at the site to support development of yet-to-be-identified downstream renewable fuels installations elsewhere in Johor, according to the company.

The project’s final environmental and social management plan issued in 2022 showed the complex would specifically process 6.324 million tpy of condensate to produce 2.161 million tpy of aromatics and 3.683 million tpy of oil products, including:

• 1.505 million tpy of paraxylene.
• 656,000 tpy of benzene.
• 298,000 tpy of LPG.
• 926,000 tpy of jet fuel.
• 887,000 tpy of light naphtha.
• 1.396 million tpy of ultralow-sulfur diesel.
• 154,000 tpy of low-sulfur fuel oil.

Approved for final investment decision in August 2024 and start of engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning (EPCC)-related activities in October 2024, PEC confirmed Honeywell UOP as the project’s main technology provider and South Korea-based GS Engineering & Construction Corp. subsidiary Zeit Operation & Maintenance Co. Ltd. as the development’s operations and maintenance services contractor in a release dated Feb. 28, 2024.