Petronas-Saudi RAPID refinery to offload first oil cargo on Monday

Petronas vice-president of LNG marketing and trading Ahmad Adly Alias said Petronas remained committed to delivering reliable supply of LNG through its integrated operations that allow for both long-term and short-term solutions for its customers

SINGAPORE: A supertanker carrying the first crude oil cargo for a refinery joint-venture project between Petronas and Saudi Aramco is expected to be unloaded on Monday, according to two industry sources and shipping data on Thomson Reuters Eikon.

The very large crude carrier (VLCC) Navarin carrying 1 million barrels each of Saudi Arab Medium crude and Iraqi Basra Light crude arrived at Malaysia on Sept. 21 and is now moored off the Pengerang oil terminal.

The project, Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID), is a $27 billion complex 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 RAPID complex will have a 300,000-barrel-per-day refinery and petrochemical units with a capacity of 7.7 million tonnes a year. Refinery operations are set to begin in 2019, with petrochemical production to follow in six to 12 months.

Petronas and Saudi Aramco could not be immediately reached for comment. - Reuters