Mashhor offers to clean up Petron refinery

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The Mashhor Group, one of the largest business conglomerates in oil-rich Brunei, has offered to clean up the refinery of Petron Corp. in Limay, Bataan.

Masshor director Mike Alford said they would visit the Philippines in January 2002 to conduct an ocular inspection on Petron’s refinery and those of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Caltex Philippines Inc.

Initially, he said it was only Petron that has expressed interest in hiring Masshor’s services.

"The Petron management seemed interested when we discussed it with them. We intend to write them and formally state that we would extend debottlenecking services to its refinery," Alford told reporters, covering the 7th Annual ASEAN Council on Petroleum (ASCOPE) Conference and Exhibition here.

He explained that under the present set-up, the refineries of local oil firms are shut down for about three weeks for cleaning purposes to improve the running capacity of the refineries.

"Once these are all cleaned up, the running capacity of the oil firms could be increased since all the impurities are taken away," he said.

Aside from these services, Masshor Group is also exploring other business opportunities in the country.

Recently, Masshor delegates visited the Philippines to discuss with Philippine energy officials the prospects of investing in existing and future oil and gas projects in the country.

Masshor, after the investment mission, has decided to take a serious look at the proposed $80-million Batangas-Manila gas pipeline and the $1-billion naphtha cracker plant.