MOSCOW (MRC) -- The chemicals arm of Malaysia’s state energy firm Petronas plans to spend roughly USD6 billion over the next 15 to 20 years to expand its specialty chemicals portfolio through acquisitions and partnerships, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to the unit’s chief executive's statement.
The budget is part of Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd’s efforts to make high-margin specialty chemicals a central part of its business, Sazali Hamzah said in an interview with Reuters at the Asia Oil & Gas Conference.
"By doing that we are going to diversify our portfolio and our dependency on crude and gas will be a lot less," he said.
Petronas Chemicals has been looking to grow rapidly in specialty chemicals, which are raw materials used to manufacture consumer products such as high-performance tyres, medical gloves and LED televisions.
Other major oil companies such as Saudi Aramco have also been expanding into petrochemicals in recent years to diversify from crude oil production.
In May, Petronas Chemicals acquired Netherlands-based Da Vinci Group BV for 163 million euros (USD186 million) in the first acquisition of its specialty chemicals push.
An immediate growth area for the company is the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) business, a 50-50 partnership with Saudi Aramco in the southern Malaysian state of Johor.
RAPID, which is part of Petronas’ USD27 billion Pengerang Integrated Complex, will contain a 300,000 barrels-per-day oil refinery and a petrochemical complex with a production capacity of 7.7 million metric tonnes per year.
Petronas Chemicals is spearheading the petrochemicals component of RAPID, which is expected to start commercial operations in the fourth quarter.
Sazali said Petronas Chemicals had lined up customers for products from RAPID - mostly from South East Asia, but also from China, Japan and South Korea.
The company is studying further expansion of the petrochemicals operations in Pengerang, he said.
"We are focused on Pengerang because it has all the facilities for future growth. We are now doing studies with a few potential partners," Sazali said.
The company is budgeting another USD6-USD7 billion over 20 years for expansion in Pengerang and existing Malaysian operations in Kerteh and Kedah, he said.
As MRC informed earlier, Petronas plans to build a C6-based metallocene linear LDPE plant and a low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) swing plant at its greenfield integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in southern Johor state by mid-2019. The proposed metallocene LLDPE will have a capacity of 350,000 tpa, while the LDPE/EVA will have a capacity of about 150,000 tpa. The two plants are part of Petronas' planned Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project in Pengerang at Johor.
Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
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