Friday 29 Mar 2024
By
main news image

KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) said it is buying all the remaining shares it does not already own in Malaysian Refining Co Sdn Bhd (MRC) for US$635 million (RM2.12 billion).

The national oil company will take up Phillips 66 Asia Ltd’s 47% stake in MRC, which will result in MRC being a wholly-owned unit of Petronas, it said in a statement yesterday.

Petronas had reached an agreement with Phillips 66 Asia, a subsidiary of US-listed energy company Philips 66, on the acquisition of its MRC stake, it said.

The deal is expected to be completed on Dec 31.

“Our acquisition of Phillips 66’s interest in MRC will enable us to realise greater synergy between our refineries in Melaka and it will also strengthen our presence in the refining and trading businesses,” said Petronas chief operating officer Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin.

To Phillips 66 Asia, the MRC stake divestiture will enable the company to redeploy resources to more strategic areas of its business, said its refining executive vice-president Larry Ziemba.

MRC was commissioned in 1998 and has a refining capacity of 170,000 barrels per day.

Reuters reported on Aug 29 that Petronas was running the 100,000 barrel-per-day refinery it jointly owned with Philips 66 Asia at a lower rate than usual after unexpectedly shutting a secondary unit.

Quoting industry sources, the report said a glitch had compelled Petronas to close the desulphuriser unit, which had caused the refinery’s crude distillation unit to run at a lower operating rate from Aug 21 to Sept 8, while the secondary unit was being fixed. Petronas did not comment on the issue at that time.

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 13, 2014.

      Print
      Text Size
      Share