Petron sets $1.5B fund to upgrade Bataan refinery

PETRON CORP., the largest oil refining and marketing company in the Philippines, announced its plans to invest $1.5 billion over the next two years to upgrade its Bataan refinery.

Petron chair and chief executive Ramon S. Ang said the expansion program will enable the Bataan refinery to comply with European emission standards called Euro4 by 2012.

“Euro4 means having 0.001-percent sulfur content. So right now, that’s where we’re headed. We are changing the complexity of the refinery to be able to crack 100 percent of its crude oil,” Ang explained.

The petrochemical byproducts, meanwhile, would have in-house usage, he said.

The planned refinery upgrade would include having additional units of Petro Fluidized Catalytic Cracker (PetroFCC 2) needed to fully convert residual products to higher-value gasoline, liquefied petroleum gas, diesel and propylene.

Petron’s 180,000-barrel-a-day refinery still produces a significant amount of low-value fuel oil for every barrel refined.

Petron president Eric O. Recto earlier said that even with the newly commissioned PetroFCC 1, Petron could only covert 75 percent of every barrel of crude oil to so-called “white” products like gasoline. PetroFCC2 will give the company full conversion capabilities, he said.

“Simply put, we want to have the ability to continue to develop better, high grade fuel products at affordable prices,” Ang had said.