PENGERANG, Johor (Oct 24): Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) is confident that demand for petrochemical products will continue to grow, following the completion of two key facilities at the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) here, its president and group chief executive officer Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin said.

“There is a whole suite of petrochemical products [that we produce here] and overall, we are very bullish on them,” he told a press conference today. 

“Despite the volatility of crude [oil] prices, demand for petrochemical products will continue to grow, especially in this region,” he added. 

Wan Zulkiflee said the progress of PIC is not affected by the pricing issue of liquefied natural gas (LNG) over the past three years, which he had brought up last week at a conference in Tokyo, Japan. Hence, he said Petronas is committed to complete the project as scheduled.  

Today, Petronas launched the Pengerang Co-generation Plant (PCP) and the Regasification Terminal 2 (RGT2), which was officiated by Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Mohamed Khaled Nordin who attended on behalf of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

“By 2020, the total investment in the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex is expected to generate a gross national income of RM8.3 billion, with PIC as the largest contributor,” Khaled said in his speech. 

The two facilities are key components of the PIC that will supply power and steam, as well as the primary gas requirement for the refinery and petrochemical plants.

The PCP has the capacity to generate 1,220MW of electricity to power the entire complex, as well as partly supply to the national grid connected through a Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s sub-station in Tanjung Langsat.

The RTG2 is an integrated facility that will receive, store and re-gas LNG, with a total capacity of 3.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG. It is designed to provide primary gas supply to the facilities within PIC and is also connected to the Peninsular Gas Utilisation pipeline to augment the supply of natural gas in the country. 

“As of September 2017, PIC is 77% complete and on track to achieve overall start-up in the first quarter of 2019,” Wan Zulkiflee said.