PTT Global Chemical

Company

PTTGC is Thailand's largest petrochemical and refining company with a capacity of producing daily 280,000 barrels of crude oil and condensate and annually 8.75 million tons of olefins and aromatics. Since the merger PTTGC benefits from reduced manufacturing cost due to the large volumes and reduced overhead cost by delivering value-added products within the downstream specialties sector under the same management umbrella.

PTTGC was listed in the Top 10 of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) for two consecutive years and was ranked twenty-second among world-leading petrochemical companies on the ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies listing. The company has seven main business lines. It focuses on investing into the expansion of specialties chemical products and green chemicals.

PTTGC also owns and operates production support facilities, such as jetty and buffer tank farm services for liquid chemical, oil and gas. Minor activities are production and distribution of electricity, water, steam and other utilities.

Aromatics and downstream products

PTTGC produces and distributes aromatics and downstream products at two locations in Rayong, at the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate and the RIL Industrial Estate. The total aromatics production including benzene, paraxylene, cyclohexane, orthoxylene, toluene, and mixed xylenes sums up to 2,259,000 tons per year.

Olefins

PTTGC's olefins plants use natural gas and naphtha as feedstock, and are flexibile regarding raw material use. The main products are ethylene, propylene, Mixed C4 and pyrolysis gasoline.

Refined products

PTTGC's refined petroleum products has a capacity of 280,000 barrels per day of crude oil and condensate intake, with various high-quality petroleum products with total capacity of 228,000 barrels per day. The products are classified in three groups:

The Crude Refining Unit is a complex refinery with hydrocracker and visbreaker units, capable of converting fuel oil into middle distillates. This unit refines crude oil into products, which may include reformate for delivery to aromatics complex. It has a capacity of 145,000 barrels/day.

The Condensate Splitter Unit 1 and 2 produce reformate for delivery to the aromatics complex along with other petroleum products, including light naphtha, LPG and condensate residue. They have a capacity of 70,000 and 65,000 barrels/day respectively.

Polymers

PTTGC's high-quality polymer resins are produced according to international-standards in an environmentally friendly manner. These are used by the manufacturing industry for producing a wide range of plastic products. The product range covers:

It was the first polymer producer in Thailand that obtained the Carbon Footprint Label from Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization above mentioned 69 grades of polymers.

PTTGC Netherlands has acquired Perstorp's 34% stake in French chemical maker Vencorex and thus increased its interest in Vencorex to 85%, which strengthens its presence in the downstream polyurethane market. Thus it can expand production of Toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and Hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and its derivatives in order to meet demand in Asian markets. These chemicals are used as feedstock in manufacturing polyurethanes, which are used in foams and coatings for the automobile and construction industries.

Strategic plans

The American subsidiary of PTTGC plans to invest $100 million for detailed engineering design of a world-scale cracker on a site in Mead Township on the west bank of the Ohio River in Belmont County, Ohio. It will take up to one year to determine the feasibility of an ethane cracker in collabotation with two consortiums of engineering firms led by Bechtel Enterprises Holdings Inc and Fluor Corporation, which will conduct the preliminary front-end engineering design work and cost estimates. The construction would require a multibillion-dollar investment. The ethane cracker would process ethane extracted from the region’s Marcellus and Utica Shale formations into ethylene, which is a basis for common plastics and resins. PTTGC wants to finalise their investment decision in 2016 or 2017. Should the project go ahead, it would need approximately three and a half years to complete the construction of the ethane cracker facility.

PTTGC wants to reduce external sales and exports of its upstream products, by investing in more of its own downstream plants. The amont of $1 billion has been allocated for its Map Ta Phut retrofit project in Rayong, which will be converted from using ethane gas to using naphtha instead. 80 % of naphta were previously sold to the more innovative Siam Chemicals Group or to export markets. The feedstock conversion will enable PTTGC's olefins factory to produce a wider range of chemicals. PTTGC plans to build its own plants or expand production of products such as polyethylene, ethylene glycols and ethylene oxide, butadiene and polystyrene. PTTCG could produce in collaboration with joint-venture partners polypropylene, acrylic acid, super acrylic polymer, styrene monomer, methyl methacrylate styrene, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and styrene-acrylonitrile polymers, solution styrene-butadiene rubber, thermoplastic elastomers, polybutadiene and several polymer compounds.

PTTGC has allocated 3 % of its net profit for research and development on high-value products. It wants to increase the revenue from high-value products from currently 4 % to 20 % of its petrochemical revenue in the next 10 years. PTTGC will set-up a joint venture with one of Thailand's leading sugar producers, to build a bio-plastic industrial estate with an estimated investment of 5 billion baht ($143 million). The site will be located in central Thailand, to benefit from growing sugarcane, producing sugar, making ethanol, generating electricity from biomass-based power plants and setting up a bio-plastic manufacturing plant in the same area.