Petronas eyes 660,000 t/year methanol plant restart by Jan

05 November 2010 08:01  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Malaysian state-owned oil major Petronas plans to restart its 660,000 tonne/year methanol unit in Labuan by January next year after clean water supplies resume by December, a company source said on Friday.

Petronas had to shut production at the PML1 (Petronas Methanol Labuan 1) plant in 2009 due to lack of clean water supplies.

“The clean water supply project is expected to end by mid November. This second pipeline from the mainland, Borneo, was supposed to have been built at around the same time PML2 started, but the government took longer than expected,” the source said.

PML2 (Petronas Methanol Labuan 2) refers to the 1.7m tonne/year plant in Labuan which is now running smoothly at above 80%.

The source explained that the restart and commissioning of the new plant would possibly take around one month or more, and hence the restart is targeted at January next year.

Methanol goes in making of formaldehyde, methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), methylamines, mono methacrylate (MMA) and acetic acid. It is increasingly being used in dimethyl ether (DME), biodiesel and the direct blending into gasoline.

Other regional methanol producers include Indonesia’s Kaltim.

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By: Heng Hui
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