MOSCOW (MRC) - Petronas has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Yayasan Hartanah Bumiputera Sarawak (YHBS), an entity of the Sarawak state government, to jointly conduct a pre-feasibility study for a proposed methanol plant in Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia, as per Apic-online.
The parties will assess the overall technical and commercial viability and feasibility of developing a methanol and methanol derivatives complex at the Samalaju Industrial Park.
In addition, Petronas signed a heads of agreement with Huchems Fine Chemical Malaysia (Huchems) for the supply of 58-million standard cu ft/d of natural gas to Huchem's proposed petrochemical plant at the same park.
The supply agreement is for a period of 20 years and will be used for the production of ammonia and ammonia derivatives.
"Both agreements are part of Petronas' on-going efforts to work together with the Sarawak state government to transform Sarawak into a petrochemical hub in the region," Petronas noted.
As MRC informed earlier, in December 2015, Petronas awarded the Johor port operatorship for its Refinery and Petrochemicals Integrated Development (RAPID) project to Johor Port Bhd (JPB). As the port operator, JPB will manage the operations and logistics functions at the material offloading facility (MOLF) for Petronas’ Refinery and Petrochemicals Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Pengerang.
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. RAPID includes a 300,000 bpd refinery and a petrochemical complex with a 3 million tpa steam cracker, and is expected to come onstream in mid-2019. The petrochemical complex will have the capacity to produce 7.7 million tpa of petrochemical products.
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.
MRC