Cambodian Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (CPC) has let a contract to China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) subsidiary Northeast Refining & Chemical Engineering Co. to build the first phase of a proposed 5 million-tonne/year refinery in Cambodia’s southwestern province of Preah Sihanouk, along the coast of the Gulf of Thailand.
As part of the $620 million Phase 1 contract, CNPC Northeast Refining & Chemical Engineering will provide engineering, procurement, and construction on the project, according to a series of releases from Cambodia’s government.
Construction on Phase 1 of the refinery, which will have a capacity of 2 million tpy, is scheduled to begin this October and be completed by yearend 2018.
In the years following commissioning of Phase 1, CPC plans to invest in additional expansions of the refinery that will increase its overall crude processing capacity to 5 million tpy, according to the government of Cambodia.
CPC’s total capital investment in the grassroots refinery will be about $3 billion, the company said.
The new refinery—which will be Cambodia’s first since a 10,000-b/d plant built in 1968 was irreparably damaged in the early 1970’s during the country’s civil war—will produce finished products for domestic consumption as well as export, Cambodia’s Ministry of Mines & Energy said in a post to its official Facebook account.
CPC previously let a licensing and engineering services contract to KBR and Tinajin Petrochemical Engineering Design Co. Ltd. for a 1.2 million-tpy hydrocracker for a proposed 5-million-tpy refinery originally planned for startup in 2015 in Cambodia’s Kampong Som Petrochemical Industrial Zone (OGJ Online, Jan. 18, 2013).
It remains unclear whether contracts let for earlier iterations of the long-planned refinery remain in effect under CPC’s revised program for the plant.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
