MOSCOW (MRC) -- The chemical manufacturing unit of Malaysia's state energy firm Petronas is looking to grow "aggressively" in specialty chemicals to meet demand in new regional markets and profit from higher margins, its CEO told Reuters.
Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd, a subsidiary of Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), currently sees only 0.2% of its total sales volumes come from specialty chemicals but the company is aiming for 15% in the next 20 years, CEO Datuk Sazali Hamzah said in an interview.
"Our game plan is to aggressively pursue it beyond 2020. We may partner, buy over companies or even do direct licensing," he said.
The affordability of specialty chemicals in its key markets Southeast Asia, China and India is increasing as those economies expand, creating new demand opportunities, Sazali said.
Last month, Petronas Chemicals said it plans to set up a plant to produce specialty chemical isononanol in the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in the southern Malaysian state of Johor with a total investment cost of USD442 mln.
Sazali said there could be more specialty chemicals plants in PIC as well. Isononanol is a building block for chemicals used in the auto, cable and construction sectors.
The company is spearheading the petrochemicals component of PIC, which is Petronas' largest downstream project in Malaysia with an estimated USD27 bln total investment.
As MRC informed before, in early 2017, Petronas said that its new USD27 billion refining and petrochemical complex project in the southeast Asian country is on track for start-up in 2019. Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters a little bit earlier that Saudi Aramco had shelved its plans for a partnership with Petronas on the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project. RAPID, located within the Pengerang Integrated Complex in the southern Malaysian state of Johor, is designed to have a 300,000-bpd oil refinery and a petrochemical complex with a production capacity of 7.7 MMt.
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