Malaysia’s PETRONAS is on track to start up RAPID project in 2019
Malaysia’s PETRONAS is on track to start up RAPID project in 2019
HD Film LD Film mPE C6 PPH Inj PPH Raf
In an official meeting with Malaysian customers on 19 December 2018, PETRONAS has announced the startup schedules for the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project, with most petrochemical units to come online within 2019.
It is informed that trial run at the PP plant would be conducted in January 2019. The mPE unit would come online within the quarter 1, followed by the HDPE and LDPE. By the second half of the year, the company aims to stabilize production rate at all units. There was no mention on the startup time at the cracker.
On the other note, RAPID project has been renamed to Pengerang Refining And Petrochemical (PRefChem). This is a joint-venture between Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) of Malaysia and Saudi Aramco.
PRefChem houses a 3 millions tons/year naphtha cracker, 900,000 tons/year PP unit, 400,000 tons/year HDPE unit. The company also owns a C6-based metallocene PE plant and an LDPE/EVA swing plant with a respective capacity of 350,000 tons/year and 150,000 tons/year.