Thai Oil Public Company Limited plans to stop the production of fuel oil from 2022 onwards and produce only clean fuels after the completion of an upgradation process worth $4 billion aimed at increasing its output of clean fuels. Further, Thai Oil plans to increase its refining capacity by 45 per cent to 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the next five years to turn fuel oil into more valuable low-sulphur products in order to meet the growing demand in the region.
In addition, it plans to install a new crude distillation unit with a capacity of 200,000-220,000 bpd and scrap two existing units with a combined capacity of 100,000 bpd. Of the refinery’s proposed 400,000 bpd fuel output, 70-75 per cent will be diesel and jet fuel, while gasoline and naphtha production will remain at 20-25 per cent.
Bangchak Petroleum Public Company Limited also plans to debottleneck its refinery by 2020 in order to increase its capacity to 130,000 bpd.