Aramco, Petronas near startup of Malaysia’s RAPID refinery

The jointly held Saudi Aramco-Petronas $27-28 billion Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in southeastern Johor, Malaysia, is preparing for official startup of Pengerang Refining & Petrochemical (PRefChem) subsidiary Pengerang Refining Co. Sdn. Bhd.’s 300,000-b/d refinery and petrochemical integrated development (RAPID) project (OGJ Online, Mar. 29, 2018).

Mechanical completion at PIC's RAPID project was achieved on Nov. 29, 2018, and all critical units under contractor Petrofac Ltd.’s scope have now started commissioning activities in advance of the fire up of the refinery’s crude distillation unit later this month, the service provider said.

Petronas previously let a Petrofac International (UAE) LLC and Petrofac E&C Sdn. Bhd. to provide engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning for the RAPID refinery’s amine recovery units, sulfur recovery units, sour water stripping units, liquid sulfur storage unit, and sulfur solidification units (OGJ Online, Aug. 11, 2014).

This latest announcement follows delivery of the first cargo of 2 million bbl of crude supplied by Petronas and Aramco to the site in September 2018 that was to be used for commissioning and testing activities at the refinery in October (OGJ Online, Sept. 26, 2018).

Situated on part of the Malaysian government’s 22,000-acre Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex 400 km south of Kuala Lumpur, the RAPID refinery, once in operation, will produce a range of refined petroleum products, including gasoline and diesel, that meet Euro 5-quality fuel specifications to help Asia Pacific’s growing need for petroleum and petrochemical products, as well as naphtha-LPG feedstock for its 3.3 million-tpy integrated cracker and downstream petrochemical complex (OGJ Online, Sept. 20, 2016).

PRefChem is an alliance of Petronas and Aramco that includes the two joint ventures Pengerang Refining and Pengerang Petrochemical Co. Sdn. Bhd.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].