KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 — Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) is on course to start its 300,000 barrels-per-day joint venture with state-controlled Saudi Aramco, the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in Johor, in the early part of the second half (H2) of 2021 compared to the earlier estimate of March.

Petronas executive vice president and chief executive officer (downstream) Datuk Md Arif Mahmood said the delay was due to the Covid-19 situation faced by the group on-site.

"We are now putting a lot of mitigation in terms of managing the workers at the site. There are still 4,000 workers and contractors at the site, plus our own personnel of about more than 2,000 people,” he said during a virtual press conference to announce the group’s results for the fourth quarter and financial year ended Dec 31, 2020.

Md Arif stressed that Petronas needed to ensure the works were carefully managed given the pandemic, which has impacted its schedule.

As at Dec 31, 2020, PIC was on track in transitioning to commercial operations, with a focus on operational readiness to achieve safe, reliable, and efficient operations, the national oil company said in a statement today.

Following the reinstatement of the movement control order, the start-up of the refinery and petrochemical plants was expected in H2 2021, subject to safe and satisfactory completion of the remaining project work, it said. 

President and group chief executive officer Tengku Muhammad Taufik Tengku Aziz said Petronas and Saudi Arabia state-owned Saudi Aramco were committed in delivering the successful and reliable start-up of PIC, despite rumours that the partnership was charting rough waters.

"It remains a commitment that I have engaged the management of Saudi Aramco regularly. We have deployed their best resources to complement our own team and at this juncture, I do not want to entertain any speculation on the partnership,” he added. — Bernama