1. The Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Pengerang, Johor, will be fully operational in the fourth quarter of this year (Q419).
2. The US$16 billion (RM66.76 billion) project between Petronas and Saudi Aramco will see 300,000 barrels produced per day, turning Malaysia into a net exporter of refined fuels for the first time since 2008
3. The facility will produce refined products including gasoline and diesel that meet Euro 5 fuel specifications and provide feedstock for the integrated petrochemicals complex with a capacity of 3.3 million metric tonnes per year.
4. in 2009, 42.3% of government revenue came from petroleum sources.But in 2019, only an estimated 19.5% of total revenue came from petroluem sources, not counting the special divided from Petronas used to finance GST and income tax refunds.
PETRONAS, ARAMCO TO START NAPHTHA CRACKER AT NEW PENGERANG REFINERY
1. Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) and Saudi Aramco have started operations at their new 1.2-million-tonnes-per-year naphtha cracker.
2. The cracker is part of the US$2.7bil joint-venture oil refinery and petrochemical project known as Rapid – or Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development – located in Pengerang, in Johor.
3. The unit cracks naphtha into a chain of hydrocarbons, the bulk of it into ethylene which is predominantly used to produce plastics.
4. Rapid also houses a 300,000 barrel-per-day refinery apart from various petrochemical lines which can produce a total of 7.7 million tonnes a year of petrochemical products.
RAPID TO BOOST ASIA'S REFINING CAPCITY GROWTH IN 2019
1. With the start-up of the Petronas' Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Pengerang around the corner, Asia’s refining capacity growth will experience a boost in 2019, says S&P Global Platts.
2. The start-up of the 300,000 barrels refining capacity per day project will also increase Saudi crude inflows to the region and add to the supply of refined petroleum products.
3. This will underscore the shift of global refining capacity growth to Asia where the bulk of the demand growth is concentrated.
4. The facility will produce refined products including gasoline and diesel that meet Euro 5 fuel specifications and provide feedstock for the integrated petrochemicals complex with a capacity of 3.3 million metric tonne per year.
5. S&P Global Platts, an energy and commodities information source also noted while China continues to dominate Asian refining capacity growth, Southeast Asian capacity additions this year are significant, mainly from RAPID and Brunei’s Hengyi refinery in the second half of 2019. Hengyi has a capacity of refining 160,000 barrels per day.
6. S&P Global Platts in its latest Asia Pacific Oil Market Forecast report, further noted that the project is designed to meet both domestic fuel demand in Malaysia and export surplus volumes although currently, domestic fuel demand is likely to be affected by lukewarm economic growth.
7. PIC will add to refined product supply at a time when higher Chinese exports will add to Asia’s diesel surplus and pressure refinery margins, at least until the impact of the International Maritime Organisation 2020 (IMO 2020) regulations start to tighten the market
8. Asian refining margins are expected to average $4.40 a barrel in 2019, up from $3.30 a barrel in 2018, according to Platts Analytics, which expects Asian product markets to tighten in the second quarter due to heavier refinery turnarounds.
9. Touching on crude distillation unit, the firm said global refiners will add 1.87 million barrels of CDU per day capacity in 2019 and the Asia Pacific region will account for about 61 per cent of those additions, taking total Asian CDU capacity to over 37 million barrels per day by the end of this year.
10. As a result, Asia’s share of global CDU capacity is expected to rise to 37 per cent in 2019, said Platts Analytics.
(Source: nst, thestar)
