Malaysian state-owned Petronas' trading arm Petco has sold a rare atmospheric residue (AR) cargo for prompt-loading from Pengerang, as its refining and petrochemical joint venture with Saudi Arabia's Saudi Aramco is in the process of restarting.
The 300,000 b/d Pengerang refinery and cracker complex, run by the PRefChem 50:50 joint venture between Petronas and Saudi Aramco, was shut after an explosion in March 2020, and restarts were delayed several times after. It possibly started feeding crude into its primary units in early-May, according to market participants.
The AR sale could have come as Pengerang's crude distillation units are running, but not its secondary units, said traders, although Petco when contacted declined to comment on the reason. AR is residual material from the bottom of the crude distillation unit. It is typically used as feedstock for secondary units to be upgraded into higher-value products, or is blended into residual fuel oil.
The Pengerang refinery complex houses two crude distillation units (CDUs), two residual fluid catalytic cracking units (RFCCs), six atmospheric residue desulphurisation units (ARDSs), five hydrotreating units, five continuous catalytic reformers (CCRs) and other petrochemical units.
The refinery offered 500,000 bl (77,500t) of prompt-loading AR to its stakeholders, Petco and Saudi Aramco, via a tender. Petco won the tender and sold the cargo to trading firm Vitol, said traders. The pricing basis was against the average of Singapore 180cst high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) spot assessments, but the price could not be confirmed. Shipping fixtures show Vitol placed the P. Yanbu on subjects to load 80,000t of residuals from Pengerang over 29-30 May and head to the US for an unreported rate.
The AR cargo had no guaranteed specifications, said a source close to Petco, although a trader mentioned it might have around 2pc sulphur.
The last-confirmed export of AR from Pengerang was in December 2019, according to Argus' records, which Vitol also could have bought.
