Saudi Aramco finalises refinery deal with Malaysia’s Petronas

Saudi Aramco finalised a deal on Wednesday with Malaysian state energy company Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) to invest in a refinery project off Malaysia.

Saudi oil giant Aramco agreed in February last year to buy a $7b stake in Petronas’s Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project, but the issue was then delayed by “technical issues”.

RAPID is a $27bn project located between the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea, conduits for Middle East oil and gas bound for China, Japan and South Korea.

The two companies said in a statement that they signed the deal on Wednesday but did not confirm the value of Aramco’s investment.

Saudi Aramco will supply 50 per cent of the refinery’s crude oil with an option of increasing it to 70 per cent, the statement said.

The development will contain a 300,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery and a petrochemical complex with a capacity of 7.7 million metric tonnes a year. Refinery operations are set to begin in 2019, with petrochemical operations to follow six to 12 months afterwards.