Malaysia's Prefchem restarts gasoline unit after repairs since January
Malaysia's Pengerang Refining Co. (Prefchem) has restarted one of its two residue fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) units in the past week after shutting it for repairs early this year, four sources familiar with the matter said.
Run rates at the 70,000-bpd unit at the Pengerang complex in Johor, which mainly produces gasoline, however, have yet to return to full levels, one of the sources added.
The unit has been shut since the last week of January due to technical problems, they said, adding that crude processing rates at the 300,000-bpd refinery also fell to around 50% on average in the past four months.
Prefchem, a joint venture between Malaysia's state-owned energy major Petronas and Saudi Aramco, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prefchem's RFCCs also encountered production hiccups in the fourth quarter last year, three of the sources said.
Some sporadic offers for gasoline cargoes loading in June from the refinery have emerged since last Friday, one of the sources said.
The refiner is expected to receive around 4 MMbbl of crude imports for May so far, Kpler shiptracking data showed, similar to April.
Meanwhile, for diesel, there should be 5-6 cargoes of 300,000 bbl each likely to load in May, according to estimates from one trade source. Diesel exports last month were less than 1 MMbbl, shiptracking data from LSEG and Kpler showed.
Prefchem also brought offline its only 1.2-metric MMtpy cracker at the complex for repairs at the end of January or early February, with the unit slated for a restart in the second-half of June, another three trade sources said.
Comments