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SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Malaysia’s Pengerang Energy
Complex Sdn Bhd (PEC) expects to make a final
investment decision (FID) on its $4.5bn
petrochemical project in Johor in the second
half of the year, when project financing is
expected to be finalised, its CEO Alwyn Bowden
told ICIS on Friday.
“Equity portion is led by ChemOne Group along
with its strategic partners,” Bowden said in an
e-mailed response to ICIS queries.
ChemOne is a Singapore-based petrochemicals,
green energy and natural resources
conglomerate. It had developed and arranged
financing for Singapore’s Jurong Aromatics
Complex, whose plant started up in 2014 and was
eventually acquired by US energy
giant ExxonMobil in 2017.
PEC is ChemOne’s business unit that will
operate and manage the proposed petrochemical
complex in Johor.
“The equity funding breakdown for the project
will be disclosed upon financial investment
decision (FID) in second half of 2023,” Bowden
said.
“The debt financing for the project launched
into syndication in 2022 and the FID of the PEC
is expected to conclude within this year as per
financing terms and schedule agreed with
leading Global Export Credit Agencies (ECAs),
with export guarantee facilities close to $3bn
to be available to support the project,” the
PEC chief said.
The PEC project will be capable of processing
150,000 bbl/day of condensate, which will, in
turn, produce 2.3m tonnes/year of aromatics,
3.9m tonnes/year of energy products and 50,000
tonnes/year of hydrogen.
“Engineering works for the Pengerang Energy
Complex (PEC) is currently underway and the
project is slated to be fully operational by
late 2026,” Bowden said.
The project is expected to produce around
2m
tonnes/year of paraxylene (PX), whose main
downstream industry is textiles.
“From 2026, there will be a lot of traditional
downstream capacity which will require
paraxylene and there is also an inflection
point predicted for China’s import
requirements,” Bowden said.
The project first announced in early
2020 was delayed from its original start-up
timeline of Q4 2022, and the cost has gone up
from the initial estimate of $3.4bn.
“During the project finance phase, the world
has experienced record oil price fluctuations,
a global pandemic and geopolitical conflict.
Each one of these events has required PEC to
re-analyse the project completely to ensure the
project is structured in a way that can
withstand such events and remain profitable at
every level,” Bowden said.
“Despite these events creating obstacles and
causing delays, it has helped the PEC to
futureproof the profitability of the project,”
he added.
Interview article by Pearl
Bantillo
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