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Petronas Chemicals earmarks $6bn for specialty chemicals expansion
FINANCE & INVESTMENT
MALAYSIA’S state-run Petronas Chemicals intends to expand its specialty chemicals divi- sion through a $6bn investment in acquisitions and partnerships over the next 15-20 years.
e investment will allow the company to make high-margin specialty chemicals a core part of its business, CEO Sazali Hamzah told Reuters on June 24.
“By doing that we are going to diversify our portfolio and our dependency on crude and gas willbealotless,”addedSazali,whowasspeaking on the sidelines of the Asia Oil & Gas Conference (AOGC) in Kuala Lumpur.
Petronas Chemicals acquired Nether- lands-based Da Vinci Group, which formulates and manufactures silicones, lube oil additives and chemicals, for €163m ($185.5m) in May. Sazali said at the time that the acquisition was a “strategic entry point” for his company’s spe- cialty chemicals portfolio. He added: “It accel- erates the realisation of PCG’s vision to create value by diversifying its product portfolio into di erentiated and specialty chemicals.”
In his June 24 interview, Sazali said Pet- ronas Chemicals intended to spend another
$6bn-$7bn in expanding its operations at both Pengerang and existing facilities in Kerteh and Kedah over the next over 20 years.
e company is leading the development of a 3.6 million tonne per year (t/y) petrochem- icals complex at parent company Petronas’ Re nery and Petrochemical Integrated Devel- opment (RAPID). RAPID, which is slated for a fourth-quarter start up, will also include a 300,000 barrel per day (b/d) refinery. Sazali said his company had lined up customers from Southeast and East Asia for its output from RAPID.
“We are focused on Pengerang because it has all the facilities for future growth. We are now doing studies with a few potential partners,” the executive said.
In related news, Petronas Chemicals and Scomi Energy Services agreed on June 25 to formalise their ongoing petrochemical research and development efforts and to market a jointly developed water-based mud additive. The companies said the mud was designed to improve shale inhibition during on- and o shore drilling.
PTTEP acquires Gulbenkian shares in Partex
FINANCE & INVESTMENT
THAILAND’S state-owned PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) last week said it was acquiring 100% of Portugal-based Partex Hold- ing from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for around US$622 million.
The move will give PTTEP a 2% stake in Muscat-backed Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) and a 1% share of the country’s Mukhaizna project in Block 53, which is oper- ated by Occidental Petroleum (Oxy).
It adds around 16,000 b/d of crude sales as well as proven and probable (2P) reserves of around 65m barrels of oil equivalent (boe) to PTTEP’s books, with the majority of these located in Oman. Partex also operates Brazil’s Potiguar eld (50%) and holds stakes in Kazakh- stan’s Dunga field (20%) and Angola’s Block 17/06 (2.5%).
In the midstream, the rm has 2% stakes in both Oman LNG and ADNOC Gas Processing. e move follows PTTEP’s maiden foray into the region in January, which came by way of Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Petroleum Council approving the award of O shore 1 and O shore 2 to a con-
sortium of the ai rm and Italy’s Eni.
The two firms committed to investing at least $230m to explore and appraise block 1 and appraise existing discoveries in block 2, with the two concessions covering a total of around 8,000 square km.
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 25 26•June•2019
