Petron to expand Bataan refinery with technologies from Honeywell

Honeywell (NYSE: HON) announced that the Philippine-based Petron Corporation will expand and upgrade its Limay, Bataan refinery in northern Philippines with technologies from Honeywell UOP. When the project is completed, the refinery will produce 75,000 barrels per day of refined fuels and 1 million tons per annum of aromatics, increasing its capacity by 55%.

Honeywell UOP will provide the basic engineering design, licensing and services for a condensate fractionation unit, naphtha hydrotreater, and UOP CCR Platforming™, Sulfolane™, LPG and kerosene Merox™ and distillate Unionfining™ units. These technologies will enable Petron to meet growing domestic demand for motor fuels by upgrading 100,000 barrels per day of condensates and light crude oils to aromatics and automotive fuels.

“This is a major expansion of refining capacity in the Philippines, and it will help the country satisfy its growing demand for cleaner-burning gasoline and diesel with domestic production,” said John Gugel, president of Honeywell UOP. “The expansion also adds a second aromatics train for Petron so it can better meet the growing demand for those products in the region.”

With a population of 104 million, the Philippines imported 46% of its gasoline, 59% of its diesel fuel and 69% of its liquefied petroleum gas in 2017.

Honeywell UOP’s CCR Platforming process produces reformate for high-octane, low-sulfur gasoline and aromatics, and is a reliable, continuous source of high-purity hydrogen for the production of other fuel products. Its Sulfolane process recovers high purity benzene and toluene from reformate.

The Merox process treats the naphtha feedstock to meet product specifications, while distillate Unionfining is a hydrotreating process that removes contaminants from feed streams.

Petron Corporation is the largest oil refining and marketing company in the Philippines, supplying nearly 40% of the country’s oil requirements. Petron operates an integrated crude oil refinery and petrochemicals complex with a rated capacity of 180,000 barrels per day in Limay, Bataan. Its refinery processes crude oil into a full range of petroleum products including gasoline, diesel fuel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), jet fuel, kerosene, industrial fuel oil, and petrochemical feedstock benzene, toluene, mixed xylene and propylene.