Saudi Aramco said it 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 the southern Malaysian state of Johor.

The partnership marks a strategic, mutually beneficial relationship that will provide PIC with high-impact strengths and synergies from both Saudi Aramco and PCG said a statement from the company.

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

"This venture leverages the historic partnership between Saudi Aramco and Petronas that was recently sealed during the visit of King Salman to Malaysia," remarked Said Al Hadrami, the VP International Operations at  Saudi Aramco, after signing the deal with Datuk Sazali Hamzah, the Petronas VP and PCG managing director and CEO.

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,” he stated.

According to him, this agreement strengthens Saudi Aramco’s position and growth in South East Asia through crude supply and world-scale downstream operations.

"Through this venture, we will also achieve a high degree of integration between refining and petrochemicals, with petrochemicals production greater than 10 per cent of crude intake," noted Al Hadrami.

"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 participated refining capacity of several million barrels per day," he added.

Hamzah said the petrochemicals projects in PIC was one of the largest growth projects for PCG and Petronas' largest downstream investment on a single site to date.

"The signing of this Agreement is truly 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.," he added.-TradeArabia News Service