Page 5 - AsianOil Week 39 2021
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AsianOil SOUTHEAST ASIA AsianOil
Petronas to restart
downstream complex this year
PROJECTS & MALAYSIA’S state-owned Petronas is aiming to been developing in the Asia-Pacific’s down-
COMPANIES restart its integrated downstream complex in the stream for the last few years.
south of the country before the end of the year. An ever-increasing number of refineries have
The 300,000 barrel per day (bpd) Pengerang either come online, are in the pipeline or are on
Refining & Petrochemical Co. (PRefChem) pro- the drawing board in places such as China, India
ject, which is part of Petronas’s broader $27bn and Southeast Asia. This was already squeez-
Refinery & Petrochemical Integrated Project ing margins for smaller refineries before the
(RAPID), was shut in March 2020 following an pandemic. Noting these oversupply issues, Arif
explosion and fire that killed five people. said Petronas’s other refineries were operating at
The state major company is now cautiously 70-75% of capacity.
optimistic that the facility – a 50:50 joint venture The March 2020 fire was the second at the
between Petronas and Saudi Aramco – will be facility, with Aramco revealing in its IPO pro-
back online within the next few months, Reuters spectus towards the end of 2019 that a fire at
quoted the company’s executive vice-president some of its units in April 2019 would delay the
and CEO of downstream, Arif Mahmood, as facility’s commissioning until the next year.
saying at the Platts APPEC 2021 conference. The state major reported another fire this
“When it comes to refining petroleum prod- week, this time at the 30mn tonne per year
ucts, we remain cautious,” the executive said, (tpy) Bintulu LNG complex. The company
pointing to the pandemic’s continued drag on said on September 29 that the fire broke out
jet fuel demand. He added: “We’ll see recovery the day before at the sea cooling water outfall
hopefully towards the end of this year, early next channel located outside the complex’s process
year.” area. However, the company was able to extin-
At the same time, the executive also flagged guish the blaze without any interruption to its
up structural oversupply challenges that have operations.
EAST ASIA
China launches first
LNG spot pricing index
POLICY CHINA has launched its first spot pricing index “Currently, China’s imports are primarily
for liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports amid an linked to foreign indices that don’t reflect Chi-
ongoing power crisis that has driven a surge in nese demand and supply, and we’re passive recip-
demand for the fuel. ients of those prices,” Reuters quoted Shanghai
The Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Development and Reform Commission energy
Exchange launched the index on September official Wang Zhiqiang as saying.
29, municipal government officials revealed at a An unnamed exchange official said the
seminar. The index is a joint effort with China’s exchange would publish daily fixed-price quotes
General Administration of Customs (GAC). in US dollars per mmBtu for spot imports over
Week 39 30•September•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P5
