Malaysia plots Rapid rivalry with Singapore

Malaysia is pitting itself against economic rival Singapore as it strives to develop a major $20 billion world-scale refinery and petrochemicals hub

The Petronas-led refinery and petrochemical integrated development scheme, dubbed Rapid, will be the single largest liquid-based downstream investment in Malaysia. And, once complete, the complex will be bigger than all of Petronas’ existing refineries and chemical plants combined. The framework for the complex, which aims to meet growing demand for premium specialty chemicals in the Asia-Pacific region, includes a 300,000 barrel per day (b/d) refinery, a naphtha cracker with a combined production capacity of around 3 million tonnes a year (t/y) of ethylene, propylene, C4 and C5 olefins, as well as an additional 22 mini-petrochemical complexes. A 5m t/y LNG receiving terminal is also part of