PNOC takes another look at $1.2-B naphtha project

State-run Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) is revisiting its plan to put up a $1.2-billion naphtha cracker plant in Bataan, a ranking PNOC official said. The project has been put in the backburner for several months now.

"Maybe it would be appropriate if we will be able to revive our plans to construct the naphtha cracker plant and make our efforts in full swing now that the Metro Alliance group decided to operate the BPC (Bataan Polyethylene Corp.)," PNOC president Thelmo Cunanan said.

Cunanan said with the entry of new investors in BPC, there will be three big petrochemical groups that would be operating within the petrochemical park being run by PNOC’s subsidiary, PNOC-Petrochemical Development Corp. (PPDC).

"Petrocorp and Philippine Resins Industries Inc. and BPC may be likely clients of the naphtha plant," he said.

PNOC, together with PPDC, has been scouting for a potential joint venture partner for the naphtha project which will be located in PPDC’s 530-hectare petrochemical park in Bataan.

Early this year, Petronas and the British Petroleum Plc. (BPP) pulled out of the consortium of Bataan Polyethylene Corp. (BPC) prompting the PNOC to re-evaluate the naphtha project’s viability.

The naphtha cracker plant, which is expected to have a capacity of 450,000 to 600,000 metric tons a year, will manufacture raw materials needed to make plastic products. Without the cracker facility, the country remains dependent on imported raw materials for the petrochemical industry.