Saudi Aramco, Malaysia’s Petronas form two JVs for RAPID project

Saudi Arabia’s national oil company Saudi Aramco and Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) have formed two joint ventures for the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project, the companies said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

The joint ventures allow the two companies equal ownership and participation in the operations of the new refinery, cracker and selected petrochemical facility, which is part of the RAPID project.

Under the partnership, Saudi Aramco will supply 50 percent of the refinery’s crude feedstock requirements with the option of increasing to 70 percent, the statement said. Meanwhile, natural gas, power and other utilities will be supplied by Petronas and its affiliates.

Both companies will share the rights to offtake the production of the joint ventures on an equal basis.

“(This venture) is in tandem with our downstream growth strategy where we are investing in a global refining and petrochemicals system of strategically located world-scale manufacturing complexes with participated refining capacity of eight to ten million barrels per day,” Abdulaziz Judaimi, senior vice-president (downstream) at Saudi Aramco, said in the statement.

He added that the partnership with Petronas will also pave the way for future collaboration between the two companies.

RAPID refinery project has a capacity of 300,000 barrels of crude per day, and will produce a range of refined petroleum products, including gasoline and diesel.

It will also provide feedstock for the integrated petrochemical complex, which is capable of producing 3.3 million tonnes per annum of petrochemical products.

Currently 87 percent complete, the RAPID project is on track for refinery start-up in Q1 2019, the statement said.