Petronas said Tuesday that it plans to startup the refinery and steam cracker at the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development, or RAPID, its join venture with Saudi Aramco in Johor, Malaysia, in Q1 2019.
Mohamed Firouz Asnan, vice president of Petronas Refining & Trading, downstream business, said the petrochemical complex will startup in Q2.
In a presentation at the Middle East Petroleum & Gas Conference, he said that the project had progressed to 62% in March, which compares with from 54% progress in February.
Progress at the refinery complex and tankage reached 72% while the steam cracker complex had progressed to 73%, he added.
The 300,000 b/d refinery is designed to produce 98,000 b/d gasoline, 88,000 b/d of gasoil, 28,000 b/d of jet A1 fuel, and 5,000 b/d of fuel oil.
RAPID is expected to be instrumental in helping Malaysia to switch to cleaner fuels.
Saudi Aramco signed a $7 billion deal for a 50% share in the project in February. It will deliver 70% of the crude that the refinery will process, and Petronas will provide the natural gas, power and other utilities, Platts reported earlier.
