US firm tapped to expand Petron refinery
Petron Corp. has engaged a subsidiary of American conglomerate Honeywell to expand and upgrade its refinery in Bataan, with a planned 55-percent increase in capacity.
Petron president and CEO Ramon S. Ang said the facility, which presently has a rated capacity of 180,000 barrels per day, would be ramped up to between 270,000 bpd to 300,000 bpd.
In a statement, New Jersey-based Honeywell said Honeywell UOP would provide the basic engineering design, licensing and services for a condensate fractionation unit, naphtha hydrotreater, and proprietary technologies used in petroleum refining.
Honeywell said these technologies would 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.
“This is a major expansion of refining capacity in the Philippines, and it will help the country satisfy its growing demand for cleaner-burning gasoline and diesel with domestic production,” Honeywell UOP president John Gugel said.
“The expansion also adds a second aromatics train for Petron so it can better meet the growing demand for those products in the region,” Gugel added.
The contractor said that when the project was completed, the refinery would produce 75,000 barrels per day of refined fuels and 1 million tons per year of aromatics, increasing its capacity by 55 percent.
