KOTA TINGGI: The oil and gas industry in Pengerang is set to receive RM120 billion in total investments within the next five to six years, of which half or RM60 billion would be contributed by the Petronas’ refinery and petrochemichal integrated development (RAPID) project, with a Taiwanese and German company also making multi-billion dollar investments.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said that the Taiwanese petrochemical company would be investing US$10-US$12 billion in the area, catering to RAPID’s needs.
Petronas had earlier signed a Heads of Agreement with German diversified chemical group BASF to jointly develop, construct and operate production facilities for specialty chemicals and plants for precursor materials within the Rapid complex.
Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said that the RAPID project will make Johor one of the biggest hubs for oil and gas as well as petrochemicals in Asia and the world.
“The RAPID project is part of the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), and the government has identified it as a high-impact project with enormous economic spin-offs for the people in the area.
“It has a capacity to process 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day to produce petroleum products such as petrol, jet and diesel fuels,” he said in his speech at the project’s launch at Pengerang on Sunday by the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar.
Also present were Tunku Mahkota Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, his four sons, Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman and Petronas president and chief executive Datuk Shamsul Azhar Abbas.
Najib said the mammoth RAPID project, which is bigger than the existing facilities in Kerteh, Gebeng and Melaka, can produce nine million tonnes of petroleum products and 4.5 million tonnes of petrochemicals a year, and will have its own regasification plant to serve Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) tankers.
The Taiwanese investments will include a refinery with a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day and a naptha cracker with a capacity of 800,000 tonnes a year, he added.
With these two projects onstream, the South Johor Economic Region will have a total refinery capacity of 450,000 barrels a day and total naptha cracker capacity of 3.8 million tonnes a year.
With the expedition of the RAPID project implementation, Petronas would be able to begin operations by end-2016, the Prime Minister said.
He added that the project had adhered to strict environmental standards, and the local community need not worry about its possible negative environmental impacts.
Local residents will also be given fair compensation, he said, citing the RM4.1 million already paid to affected fishermen and the setting up of a special committee to handle the matter.
At the function, Najib also presented a mock cheque for RM1.24 million to Pengerang MP Datuk Seri Azalina Othman for the repair of 124 fishermen’s houses under a special project, which has already disbursed RM1.7 million involving 172 houses. –BERNAMA