Thailand’s largest refiner, Thai Oil, will stop producing fuel oil from 2022 once it completes a $4-billion upgrade that will boost output of clean fuels, officials said.
The project is part of a growing trend among global refiners to produce more high-quality oil products instead of the heavy polluting fuel oil. Shippers, the biggest user of fuel oil, will likely drop it after 2020 to meet requirements set by the International Maritime Organization.
The upgrade will bring Thai Oil’s capacity closer to Royal Dutch Shell’s 500,000-B/D Bukom complex in Singapore, the oil major’s biggest wholly owned plant, while sharpening the Thai refiner’s competitive edge as brand-new complexes come online in Malaysia and Vietnam, analysts said.