Thai PTT Global to invest $4.5b for RI, US projects

Thailand's PTT Global Chemical PCL planned to spend US$4.5 billion from 2015 to 2019, most on a petrochemical complex in Indonesia and another project in the United States as part of its foreign expansion, The Star reported.

PTT Global, a flagship in the petrochemical business of PTT PCL, is expected to make a decision in March or April about the location of the olefin plant in the United States, chief executive Supattanapong Punmeechaow told reporters Friday.

Half the funding will come from cashflow and the rest from borrowing, said Patiparn Sukorndhaman, the company's executive vice president for finance.

PTT Global, one of the world's top-10 ethylene makers, has joined Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina to build a 1.5 million-ton olefin cracker with an estimated $4 billion-$5 billion. It aims to conclude details of the project this year, the company said in a statement.

The company is studying the possibility of investing in a one-million ton olefin project in the United States using ethane from shale gas as feedstock. The project is expected to require investment of $5 billion, it said.

It aimed to conclude this year a plan to build a propylene oxide plant with capacity of 200,000 tons a year and estimated cost of $1 billion, it said.

For 2015, PTT Global planned to invest $650 million baht, compared with $700 million spent in 2014, most on expanding capacity of existing projects, Patiparn said.

Three projects due to be completed this year include Phenol 2, TOC Glycol and Aromatics 2, which analysts expect to lift the company's total capacity by 665,000 tons a year, or 7.5 percent of current capacity.

Formed in October 2011 through a merger of two PTT subsidiaries, PTT Global has petrochemical capacity of 8.75 million tonnes a year and runs a refinery with a crude and condensate refining capacity of 280,000 barrels per day.(*)