Petronas, Malaysia's state-owned oil and gas company, and Versalis, Eni's chemical subsidiary and a global leader in the plastics and elastomers industry, have signed a shareholders' agreement (SHA) to set up a joint venture company that will manufacture elastomer products produced at Petronas' proposed refinery and petrochemical integrated development (Rapid) complex in Pengerang, Johor, Malaysia.
The Petronas Refinery and Petrochemical Corporation (Prpc) a subsidiary of Petronas that is undertaking the Rapid project, will have a 60 per cent interest in the proposed joint venture (which will also sell and market the products) while Versalis will own the remaining 40 per cent.
The agreement, for an initial period of 30 years, was signed in Kuala Lumpur in the presence of Versalis' CEO Daniele Ferrari, Petronas' chief operating officer and executive vice president for downstream business Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin and the Prpc CEO Puan Juniwati Rahmat Hussin.
On the occasion Daniele Ferrari said: "Thanks to this investment Versalis will have a more global presence in the elastomer business and an industrial presence in an area where we see a very promising growth for the synthetic rubbers we will produce".