KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced on Monday that Saudi Arabia's state oil company Saudi Aramco will invest US$7bil (RM31bil) into an oil refinery and petrochemical project in Johor. Najib said the decision was made before noon on Monday after discussions between top executives from Saudi Aramco and Malaysia's state-owned energy company Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), the sponsor of the US$27bil Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project. At the time, Petronas said it would move ahead in spite of Aramco dropping out. RAPID will contain a 300,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery and a petrochemical complex with a production capacity of 7.7 million metric tonnes. Last year, Petronas sought proposals for a US$7.2bil loan for the project, with separate guarantees from the company and Aramco, Thomson Reuters IFR reported in June.

Source: The Star February 27, 2017 10:01 UTC