PTT steps up production to keep Thailand’s energy supply stable
PTT Group is operating at full capacity to help ensure that Thais continue to have uninterrupted access to energy and petrochemical products.
PTT Plc said recently that it is able to secure sufficient oil supplies from around the world and keep refineries within the group — which account for 60% of the country’s production — operating at more than 100% capacity to meet domestic demand for refined oil products.
Its refineries are running at full capacity to supply products to service stations, including regular jobber clients. The group will also begin controlling the price at which it sells to jobbers so that they align with retail price at service stations, in order to prevent jobbers from refuelling at service stations.
Oil refineries are therefore a vital part of the country’s infrastructure, PTT said. In addition to importing crude oil and refining it into diesel, jet fuel, petrol and LPG, they also produce feedstock for petrochemical plants to manufacture plastic pellets.
Refineries also play an important role similar to that of natural gas separation plants, which process raw gas from the Gulf of Thailand into fuel gas for power plants while also yielding petrochemical feedstock and LPG, it added.
PTT Group refineries are currently operating at 109% capacity, with diesel output up 7%, and are distributing products at full speed.
There has been no stockpiling of either feedstock or products beyond normal levels, resulting in refinery product inventories — which must be maintained for both distribution and legal reserve requirements — falling 30% below normal levels.
Meanwhile, PTT’s oil trading arm, PTT Oil and Retail Business Plc (OR), has been selling 35% more diesel than usual and is distributing products at maximum capacity. Diesel and petrol stocks have fallen by more than 50% from normal levels, approaching the legal reserve threshold.
Plastic pellet plants within the PTT Group have also been operating continuously at more than 100% capacity to help customers maintain uninterrupted access to products.
“PTT stands ready to support government policy in helping to keep the national economy moving forward steadily and securely,” the company concluded.
