Petronas plans $20b refining, petrochemical unit

State-run Petronas will build a $20 billion (Dh73.4 billion) integrated refinery and petrochemicals complex, Malaysia's largest single investment in recent years, that will boost the country's total refining capacity by half, to 935,300 barrels per day (bpd), as it looks to meet Asian demand for speciality chemicals. The development in the southern state of Johor bordering Singapore, to be known as the Refinery and Petrochemicals Integrated Development (Rapid), is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2016. It will put Malaysia on track to vie with Asian oil hub Singapore, which has a refining capacity of about 1.3 million bpd. This commitment to an ambitious expansion in its downstream production capacity assuredly signifies the depth of Petronas' ambitions to capture the opportunities Asia's dynamic energy and chemical markets are expected to provide," Prime Minister Najib Razak said at the project's launch. from / Gulf News