Petron starts propylene production from Bataan plant

MANILA, Philippines- Top oil refiner Petron Corp. on Tuesday announced that it has begun production of petrochemical feedstock propylene at its 180,000 barrel-per-day Bataan Refinery with the recent start-up of its Propylene Recovery Unit. The company commissioned its Petro Fluidized Catalytic Cracker plant in mid-February. “From a national perspective, this major investment underscores our belief in the country’s growth prospects and our desire to contribute to nation-building," Nicasio Alcantara, Petron president and chief executive officer, said in a statement to the Philippine Stock Exchange. “These new refinery units will hopefully jumpstart the local petrochemical industry and will result in exponential benefits for other vital downstream manufacturing sectors." The PetroFCC, which is the first “cracking" unit of its kind in the world, has significantly improved operating efficiencies since it converts black products (fuel oil) to high-value white products (LPG, gasoline, diesel etc.) and enables the extraction of the petrochemical feedstock propylene. From the PetroFCC, the propylene stream is purified in the PRU to produce petrochemical grade propylene. The PetroFCC has a conversion capacity of 19,000 barrels per day while the PRU will produce 140,000 metric tons of propylene annually. - GMANews.TV