Petronas receives tallest, heaviest fractionator process column in Malaysia

Petronas has received the tallest and heaviest propylene fractionator process column in Malaysia for the steam cracker facility located within its Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in Pengerang, Johor.

In a statement, Petronas senior vice president and CEO of Petronas Refinery and Petrochemical Corporation Sdn Bhd (PRPC), Colin Wong Hee Huing said the fractionator has been recognised by the Malaysia Book of Records as the tallest and heaviest process column in Malaysia.

The state-of-the-art equipment was received on June 25.

Wong said this complemented the overall development of the PIC, which is poised for its refinery start-up by early 2019.

The PIC is a mega-scale, high-complexity development consisting of 23 process plants for refinery, steam cracker, petrochemicals and associate facilities.

The project is entering the construction phase and is progressing as scheduled.

"We are optimistic of delivering this development within a relatively short timeframe of 52 months from when we reached our Final Investment Decision (FID) in April 2014.

"We are now at the mid-point of the project schedule and on track towards achieving the overall PIC start-up in the first quarter of 2019," he added.

The process column travelled eight days aboard the Jumbo Maritime-operated vessel MV Fairmaster, and all the way from the Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in South Korea, before arriving at the Material Offloading Facility (MOLF) port in Tanjung Setapa, Johor.

The vessel also carried a smaller-scale propylene fractionator and an ethylene fractionator.

All three process columns are part of the main structures for PIC’s steam cracker complex, to be constructed by a consortium of Toyo Engineering Corporation and Toyo Engineering & Construction Sdn Bhd.