Saudi Aramco’s flagship Malaysia downstream JV with state firm Petronas is already well behind schedule. Now further delays look likely after a 15 March explosion and fire at the Pengerang Refining & Petrochemical (PrefChem) complex’s diesel hydrotreater killed five. The second fire at the site in less than a year has seen the entire complex shuttered.

The crude distillation unit at the 300,000 b/d refinery was started up in April 2019, but shut down shortly afterwards by a fire in the atmospheric residue desulfurization (ARDS) unit (MEES, 23 August 2019). (CONTINUED - 165 WORDS)