KUALA LUMPUR — Nasional Berhad (Petronas), the national oil company of Malaysia and Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) Moday launched “PRefChem”, the corporate identity for their joint ventures in the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) located in Pengerang, Johor, Malaysia. PRefChem comprises Pengerang Refining Company Sdn Bhd (PRefChem Refining) and Pengerang Petrochemical Company Sdn Bhd (PRefChem Petrochemical), both will be collectively known as “PRefChem”.

Petronas and Saudi Aramco had earlier in March 2018 concluded the Share Purchase Agreement for equal ownership and participation in the operations of the refinery, cracker and selected petrochemical facilities in the PIC.

To mark the occasion, a ceremony was held at PIC, which also saw the unveiling of PRefChem’s logo. Present were Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin, president & group chief executive officer of PETRONAS; Amin H Nasser, president & chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco; Datuk Md Arif Mahmood, executive vice president downstream of Petronas, as well as Dr. Colin Wong Hee Huing, who are respectively the chairman and chief executive officer of the two companies.

Speaking at the event, Zulkiflee said: “This integrated partnership marks a visionary move by two professionally-run national oil companies where both are able to leverage on each other’s strengths and share technical capabilities as well as experiences for mutual benefit. I am proud that we are amongst the pioneer of national oil companies partnering with one another to ensure better positioning for both organizations in an increasingly competitive market.”

“Most importantly, this partnership was built on a shared vision and shared values that align a number of priorities for both parties including – upholding the “amanah” or trust that both organizations have in contributing to our respective nations and its people,” he added.

Nasser stated, “Today marks an important milestone for this giga joint venture project, which is an integral part of Saudi Aramco’s refining and fuels marketing and chemicals business strategies and will help in strengthening the company’s growth position in Southeast Asia through crude supply and world-scale downstream operations. This venture also closely aligns with our downstream strategy to invest in a global refining and petrochemicals system of world-scale manufacturing complexes in key regions with participated refining capacity of eight to 10 million barrels per day by 2030. We are committed to help enhance the area’s prosperity and look forward to this new stage of cooperation with our valued partner Petronas. Malaysia provides a great opportunity for Saudi Aramco’s downstream portfolio expansion in Asia and PRefChem’s strategic location in Pengerang will clearly position the country as a prolific regional energy hub, at the same time serve to enhance energy security in the Asia-Pacific region.”

At the event, PRefChem also celebrated a major milestone with the mechanical completion of Package 2 comprising the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU). The mechanical completion certificate was presented to Sun Lili, president of Sinopec Engineering, by Mahmood, witnessed by Zulkiflee and Nasser.

Commenting on the company’s visual identity, Dr. Colin Wong said that the circular movement of the logo represents collaboration, precision and bonding between Petronas and Saudi Aramco, while the blue and green colors portray PRefChem as a vibrant, dynamic and environmentally friendly company.

The refinery complex and cracker is now 96.54 percent complete while the petrochemical facilities has achieved 84.8 percent completion.

Apart from the refinery, cracker and the petrochemical facilities, PIC also includes the development of associated facilities, namely a co-generation plant, an LNG re-gasification terminal, a raw water supply plant, a deep water terminal, and air separation unit, as well as centralized and shared utility facilities.