Saudi Aramco has entered into a strategic partnership with Petronas Chemicals Group Berhad (PCG) to enhance the value and competitive positioning of its petrochemicals projects within the Petronas Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in Johor, south of Malaysia.

Under the terms of the venture’s share purchase agreement signed between PCG and Aramco Overseas Holding Cooperative U.A. (AOHC) subsidiary, the parties have equal ownership in PRPC Polymers Sdn Bhd (PRPC Polymers) within PIC.

The agreement was signed by Saudi Aramco vice president International Operations, Said al-Hadrami and Petronas vice president and PCG CEO Sazali Hamzah.

Hadrami believed that this venture leverages the historic partnership between Saudi Aramco and Petronas which was recently sealed during the visit of the Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques King Salman to Malaysia.

“Given PCG’s strength in the region’s petrochemicals sector, Saudi Aramco is proud to be entering into a deeper, mutually beneficial partnership in PIC.,” said Hadrami.

He added that this agreement strengthens Aramco’s position and growth in South East Asia through crude supply and world-scale downstream operations.

“We will also achieve a high degree of integration between refining and petrochemicals, with petrochemicals production greater than 10% of crude intake. It is also in tandem with our downstream growth strategy where we are investing in a global refining and petrochemicals system of strategically located world-scale manufacturing complexes with the participated refining capacity of several million barrels per day,” he explained.

Vice president Sazali Hamzah stated the petrochemicals projects in PIC is one of the largest growth projects for PCG and Petronas’ largest downstream investment on a single site to date.

He described the signing of the agreement as a momentous milestone for the industry as it brings together two key leaders in petrochemicals, entering into a partnership in a world-scale greenfield project.

“We are proud to be joining hands with Saudi Aramco, a world leader in integrated energy and chemicals with an unrivaled track-record in mega-project execution and efficiency,” he added.

“By 2020, our petrochemicals projects under PIC will provide a strong foundation for us to move into derivatives and specialty chemicals. Beyond 2020, PCG will also focus on assessing opportunities in downstream derivatives and specialty chemicals at Pengerang, Kertih, Gebeng and East Malaysia,” concluded Hamzah.