• Petron taps Honeywell for Limay refinery expansion

Oil giant Petron Corp. has tapped Honeywell, an international supplier for petroleum industries, for the expansion of its refinery in Limay, Bataan.

The expansion involves technologies from Honeywell UOP, which will provide the basic engineering design, licensing and services for a condensate fractionation unit and naphtha hydrotreater, among others.

“These technologies will enable Petron to meet growing domestic demand for motor fuels by upgrading 100,000 barrels per day of condensates and light crude oils to aromatics and automotive fuels,” Petron said in a statement.

When the project is completed, the refinery will produce 75,000 barrels per day of refined fuels and one million tons per annum of aromatics, increasing its capacity by 55 percent.

“This is a major expansion of refining capacity in the Philippines, and it will help the country satisfy its growing demand for cleaner-burning gasoline and diesel with domestic production,” said John Gugel, vice president and general manager of Honeywell UOP’s process technology and equipment business.

“The expansion also adds a second aromatics train for Petron so it can better meet the growing demand for those products in the region,” he added.

With a population of 104 million people, the Philippines imported 46 percent of its gasoline, 59 percent of its diesel and 69 percent of its liquefied petroleum gas in 2017.

Honeywell UOP’s CCR platforming process produces reformate for high-octane, low-sulfur gasoline and aromatics, and is a reliable, continuous source of high-purity hydrogen the production of other fuel products. Its sulfolane process recovers high purity benzene and toluene from reformate.

Furthermore, its technology would allow the naphtha feedstock to meet product specifications.

Petron is the largest oil refining and marketing company in the Philippines, supplying nearly 40 percent of the country’s oil requirements.

It operates an integrated crude oil refinery and petrochemicals complex with a rated capacity of 180,000 barrels per day in Limay. Its refinery processes crude oil into a full range of petroleum products including gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas, jet fuel, kerosene, industrial fuel oil, and petrochemical feedstock benzene, toluene, mixed xylene and propylene.