Eni board's Petronas' RAPID complex

Pengerang, Malaysia - Petronas has signed a heads of agreement with Italy-based Versalis SpA, part of Eni SpA, to jointly establish and operate elastomer plants within its’ proposed ‘refinery and petrochemical integrated development’ (RAPID) complex.

The deal covers a proposed joint venture to produce and market synthetic rubbers using Versalis’ technology licence and technical know-how. The elastomer plants would be part of the world-scale facilities to be developed within the RM60-billion RAPID complex in Pengerang, Johor.

The agreement with Milan-based Versalis (formerly known as Polimeri Europa) is the fourth of such deal secured by Petronas for RAPID. The engineering activities will commence immediately, said the Malaysian group.

The group has also inked similar agreements with BASF of Germany, ITOCHU Corp. of Japan and PTT Global Chemical plc of Thailand for various downstream chemicals. Other partners and licensors are also being sought for facilities to be developed within RAPID.

Petronas’ proposed RAPID project is the largest liquid-based green-field downstream undertaking in Malaysia. It will have a 300,000 barrels per day refinery to supply the petrochemical complex, apart from producing a host of refined petroleum products, including gasoline and diesel that meet the Euro 4 and Euro 5 fuel specifications.

The petrochemical component of the project will allow Petronas to expand its product portfolio from commodity petrochemicals to premium differentiated and speciality chemicals, capitalising on the growing demand for these higher value products in the Asia Pacific region.