Thai Oil studies options to expand refinery

Thai Oil, Thailand’s top oil refiner, will spend between US$500 million to US$1 billion to increase the capacity at its refinery and to produce more value added petrochemical products, CEO Surong Bulakul said. The company is currently looking at several options to expand its 275,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery. The refinery produces diesel, jet fuel, benzene, liquefied petroleum gas and feedstock for petrochemical plants. One option is to build a new hydrocracking unit, which will require about US$200-300 million. Another option is to convert fuel oil into higher-margin diesel fuel, which will require less money. “The investment budget will be five years until 2015-2016 and this is for our organic growth,” Surong told Reuters. Thai Oil, a flagship in the refinery business of the PTT group, is keen to join with PTT to expand overseas, he said. (August 17, 2011)