Linde, Petronas to build air gas facility

GERMAN gas specialist Linde has announced a joint venture (JV) with Petronas to build an industrial air gas facility to supply Petronas’ Refinery and Petrochemicals Integrated Complex (RAPID) in Johor, Malaysia.

The JV, called Pengerang Gas Solution (PGS), will invest €150m (US$167.5m) to build two large air separation units and associated gas facilities which will produce gaseous oxygen and nitrogen to supply RAPID – which includes ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol and polypropylene plants – over the long term.

The complex’s refineries require large quantities of gases to control various processes including equipment performance, conversion efficiencies, wastewater treatment and cleaning.

Linde’s Engineering Division will now design and construct PGS’ air separation units (ASUs), after concluding the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contract for PGS.

RAPID is part of Petronas’ US$27bn Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) development which will be completed in early 2019. It will include a 300,000 bbl/d refinery, a naphtha steam cracker and an integrated petrochemical complex producing ethylene, propylene, butadiene and other derivatives. In June, Petronas took delivery of the tallest and heaviest propylene fractionator process column in Malaysia, for its steam cracker.

This is the second JV between Linde and Petronas. The first was an air gases trading company called Industrial Gases Solutions (IGS) which supplies gases to Petronas’ subsidiaries in Malaysia, including to its Kerteh and Gebeng petrochemical complexes.