PTT Plc, the national oil and gas conglomerate with five subsidiary companies is allocating a 2019 budget for all business expansion worth a combined THB 450 billion. A large part of the budget will be spend on projects in the government’s Eastern Economic Corridor scheme in three provinces (Chachoengsao, Chon Buri and Rayong) where the group operates petrochemical and utility businesses.
The company will spend THB 130 billion in 2019 on the fifth phase of an onshore gas pipeline, the second phase of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal, and an oil retailer unit.
PTT Exploration and Production Plc (PTTEP), the oil and gas drilling firm, has been assigned THB 60 billion for the exploration of existing oil and gas blocks in Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Australia. PTTEP also has two new petroleum blocks in the United Arab Emirates.
Meanwhile, PTT Global Chemical Plc, a petrochemical business, will invest THB 50 billion this year for its ongoing project of performance upgrades and specialty petrochemical products such as propylene oxide and ethylene. In 2018, PTTGC started construction in Rayong’s Map Ta Phut on one upstream project for an olefin cracker (ethylene) and propylene plant with a capacity of 880,000 tons a year and two downstream projects to produce propylene oxide, polyols and polyurethane at a capacity of 200,000, 130,000 and 20,000 tons a year, respectively.
Thai Oil Plc, a refiner under PTT, will start construction of the Clean Fuel Project (CFP) in Sri Racha, Chon Buri in 2019. The project which is scheduled to be completed by 2022 is valued at around USD 4.7 billion. The project will transform the existing oil refinery in Sriracha, Chonburi, into an Environmentally-friendly facility, which will produce higher quality transportation fuels. The project will also increase the refinery’s production capacity from 275,000 barrels per day to 400,000 barrels per day.
IRPC Plc, another manufacturer of petrochemicals, plans to invest THB 30 billion in 2019 for the Maximum Aromatics project, a naphtha-reforming and aromatics complex, increasing production capacity at an existing integrated petrochemical complex in Rayong province to 1.2 million tons of paraxylene, from the current 1 million, and 495,000 tons of benzene, up from 114,000.annually.
(Source: Bangkok Post)
