Petron oil refinery expansion completion 2022 - Arhive

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By Myrna M. Velasco

The upgrade and expansion of Petron Corporation’s Limay oil refinery – by another 100,000 to 120,000 barrels per day capacity – is targeted on stream by year 2022, according to company President and Chief Executive Officer Ramon S. Ang.

Upon completion, Ang noted that the refinery will already yield liquid fuels of 270,000 to 300,000 barrels per day and will be among the most advanced refineries in the Asian region. The Petron Limay refinery currently has 180,000 barrels of oil per day capacity.

The extent of capital outlay for the project, according to the company chief executive, will be firmed up “in the next two months,” but previous calculations have been placing it to be higher than the US$2.0-billion capital spend in the refinery’s upgrade in recent years.

Just this week, it was announced that the Petron refinery’s upgrade will be equipped with technologies to be supplied by New York Stock Exchange-listed firm Honeywell UOP.Petron oil refinery expansion completion 2022

In a press statement, the US technology provider indicated that the programmed upgrade on the Petron refinery “will increase production of motor fuels and aromatics.”

Executives of the oil firm announced in May that capital spending of P10 billion will be initially funneled on the refinery upgrade as well as retail network expansion of the country’s leading oil firm.Petron oil refinery expansion completion 2022

According to Honeywell UOP, “when the project is completed, the refinery will produce 75,000 barrels per day of refined fuels and 1.0 million tons per annum of aromatics, increasing its capacity by 55-percent.”Petron oil refinery expansion completion 2022

On its deal with Petron, Honeywell UOP emphasized that it will be providing “the basic engineering design; licensing and services for a condensate fractionation unit; naphtha hydrotreater and UOP CCR platforming; sulfolane, liquefied petroleum gas and kerosene Merox; and distillate unionfining units.”

The Illinois-headquartered firm explained that these technologies “will enable Petron to meet growing domestic demand for motor fuels by upgrading 100,000 barrels per day of condensates and light crude oils to aromatics and automotive fuels.”

John Gugel, vice president and general manager of Honeywell UOP’s process technology and equipment business, qualified that “this is a major expansion of refining capacity in the Philippines,” one that will satisfy the market’s need for cleaner burning gasoline and diesel.Petron oil refinery expansion completion 2022

Moreover, the expansion will “add a second aromatics train for Petron so it can better meet the growing demand for those products in the region.”Petron oil refinery expansion completion 2022

On the technologies to be supplied by the American firm, it specified that the CCR platforming process will be utilized in producing reformate “for high octane, low sulfur gasoline and aromatics, and is a reliable, continuous source of high purity hydrogen for the production of other fuel products.”Petron oil refinery expansion completion 2022

In unison, the ‘sulfolane’ process entails the recovery of “high purity benzene and toluene from reformate,” while the Merox process “treats the naphtha feedstock to meet product specifications; while distillate unionfining deals with hydrotreating process that removes contaminants from feed streams.Petron oil refinery expansion completion 2022

Benzene in particular is a feedstock to produce tires, detergents, solvent dyes, and cosmetics among others; while toluene is used for producing dyes, foam and jogging shoes, to name a few.Petron oil refinery expansion completion 2022
Petron remains as the Philippines’ biggest downstream oil industry player; while also making inroads as significant market force on its Malaysian operations.

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