Petronas will build new refinery in Sudan

Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas company, Petroliam Nasional Bhd. (Petronas) is moving forward with plans to build a new refinery in Sudan and upgrade an existing refinery at Melaka in Malaysia. The planned refinery on the Red Sea coast would process sour, acidic crude, including the newly commissioned Dar Blend grade from Sudan’s Melut Basin Blocks 3 and 7. Petronas already has extensive upstream interests in Sudan, and the refinery project would allow it to be fully involved in Sudan’s petroleum sector from exploration to retailing. The second unit, PSR-2, is a joint venture between Petronas, U.S.A.s ConocoPhillips and Norway’s Statoil that processes sweet and sour crude. (November 8, 2006)