BP to double investment in Malaysia

Oil giant BP Amoco Plc plans to double its total investment in Malaysia by 2010 and expand its petrochemical and exploration business, the company said yesterday. To date, BP Amoco Plc said it had invested some $1.6 billion in oil marketing, chemicals, exploration and solar panel manufacturing.

"We will double our investment by 2010 and we are looking forward to continue with world-scale operations here in the country," BP Malaysia Chief Executive Peter Wentworth was quoted as saying by the national Bernama news agency. He said BP's investment in upstream activities would focus on the Joint Development Area (JDA), a gas field Thailand shares with Malaysia.

"The upstream investments will increase because the JDA development is a phased development and we are only at the first phase," Wentworth said. BP Malaysia, 70 percent owned by BP Amoco, said earlier this week it was building a $150 million plant to produce a plastic derivative used to insulate cables, wires and car interiors.

The trimellitic anhydride (TMA) plant will be located at BP's existing purified terephthalic acid complex in Kuantan, east Malaysia, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2002.The company said the plant would have the capacity to produce 65,000 tonnes of TMA annually, of which about 85 to 90 per cent would be exported to Asian countries.

Commercial production is expected to start by first quarter of 2003. BP Malaysia officials said the TMA plant would source its raw material, acetic acid, from its joint venture plant with Malaysia's national oil firm Petronas in eastern Terengganu state.

Wentworth also said an expected slowdown in the U.S. economy would not affect BP's long-term investment plan. He expects world oil production to be sufficient to keep oil prices in the range of $18 to $25 per barrel. "Anything in excess of that (price) potentially has a negative effect over the long term," he said.