This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 25, 2017

PENGERANG: 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 about them,” he told a press conference yesterday.

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

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.

Earlier, Petronas’ Pengerang Co-generation Plant (PCP) and Regasification Terminal 2 (RGT2) were launched 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 can 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 substation in Tanjung Langsat.

The RGT2 is an integrated facility that will receive, store and re-gas LNG, with a total capacity of 3.5 million tonnes per annum. Designed to provide primary gas supply to the facilities within PIC, it is also connected to the Peninsular Gas Utilisation pipeline to augment the supply of natural gas in the country.

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