Malaysia's state-owned Petronas and Saudi Aramco are targeting to start up cracker operations at the 300,000 b/d Rapid refinery and petrochemicals complex in Pengerang, southern Malaysia by the end of June, based on imported naphtha.
Pengerang's cracker is linked to petrochemical units that have a design capacity to produce 1mn t/yr of ethylene, 900,00 t/yr of propylene, 165,000 t/yr of benzene and 180,000 t/yr of butadiene (BD). The complex also has associated downstream units for 750,000 t/yr of polyethylene (PE) and 900,000 t/yr of polypropylene (PP).
Cargoes of downstream products such as benzene and BD will be available for mid-July loading from the Pengerang complex in Johor state, although other details such as the volume and timing of shipments cannot be confirmed.
There also may be some ethylene and propylene available for import once the cracker starts up, but no further details are available. The first PE and PP cargoes from the complex were sold in May.
Petronas is in the midst of ensuring its petrochemicals products qualify for import tax exemptions under the Asean-China free trade agreement that will give it a competitive edge against South Korean and Japanese producers.
The Pengerang complex — a joint venture between Petronas and Aramco — was scheduled to start operations in early April, but this was postponed after an explosion and a fire on 12 April. The blast hit the refinery's 140,000 b/d atmospheric residue desulphurisation unit. The fire was contained within 30 minutes.
