Petron prepares for expansion of Bataan refinery

Petron Corp. is in talks with contractors for its planned refinery expansion and petrochemical plant project in Bataan as its existing refinery now operates at near full capacity.

“We are talking to service providers for our CCRU (continuous catalytic reforming unit) project,” Petron general manager Lubin B. Nepumoceno said in a briefing.

Nepumoceno said that, along with additional refining capacity, the project would allow the oil giant to produce “a combination of fuels, mostly petrochemicals such as mixed xylene, toluene and benzene.”

When asked how much the new equipment would be rated in terms of producing petrochemicals, the company official said there was “no firm number yet until approved by (Petron’s) top management.”

“We still need to work out the production capacity, we are going through basic engineering design,” he said.

Last week, Petron reported a record quarterly consolidated net income of P5.8 billion for the first quarter, up by 4 percent year-on-year thanks to “stable and improved operating efficiencies at its refinery in Bataan.”

Petron said that during the quarter, the Bataan facility was operating at record 99 percent of its refining capacity of 180,000 barrels daily.

In September 2017, Petron president Ramon S. Ang said the company would prefer an expansion of its refinery complex in Bataan since it would be quicker to implement and would be less costly than building a new one elsewhere in the Philippines outside of Luzon. He said the additional capacity could be as much as 120,000 barrels per day which would bring its total capacity to 300,000 barrels daily.