Saudi Aramco to finalize purchase of Malaysia’s RAPID by March-end: official

State-owned Saudi Aramco’s investment to acquire a stake in Petronas’ Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project will come in by the end of this month, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing Abdul Rahman Dahlan, Malaysian minister in the prime minister’s department.

Talks have been concluded between the Malaysian state energy producer and Saudi Aramco over the latter’s planned $7 billion investment in the refinery, Dahlan added at the OTC Asia conference.

In February 2017, the Saudi oil giant announced a plan to purchase an equity stake in Malaysian firm Petronas’ major refining and petrochemical project, pumping in $7 billion in its biggest downstream investment outside the kingdom, Argaam reported.

Dahlan said in November that both companies will finalize the joint venture after resolving “technical issues”.

RAPID will consist of a 300,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery and a petrochemical complex with a capacity of 7.7 million metric tons annually.