Petron taps Citibank for fuel project study

Petron Corp., the country’s largest oil refiner, will tap Citibank N.A. to conduct another feasibility study on its planned $1.2-billion fuel conversion project, company president Jose Syjuco said.

"We are doing a (feasibility) study with Citibank to finetune details of the previous study we made on this project," Syjuco said, adding that they plan to pursue the project based on the previous study they made in 1998.

"We will just make some minor but necessary changes on the previous study. Citibank will finetune it (study)," he said.

Petron shelved the project last year due to the weak economic condition. Syjuco said they have decided to pursue the so-called petrocoke project this year.

Earlier, Petron sought the help of state-run Philippine National Oil Co.-Energy Development Corp. (PNOC-EDC), the geothermal unit of state-owned PNOC, to push through with the said project.

Confident that the economic climate will improve this year, Petron will try to pursue the project with PNOC-EDC.

A first-of-its-kind in the country, the fuel conversion power plant will have a capacity of 350 megawatts and will be located in Limay, Bataan.

The project involves the modification of low-priced black residue products in the refinery to high value light products through the use of hydrocracking and delayed coking processes.

The petroleum coke project is envisioned to produce a product which will be a cheap source of fuel for a commercial power plant. –Donnabelle Gatdula