TOP Is Stepping into World-Class Oil Refinery Business

Thai Oil Public Company Limited (TOP)’s new Clean Fuel Project (CFP) will mark a new page in its history for elevating the company from a national oil refinery to one of the world’s most advanced refinery plants with CFP’s refinery capacity and higher product qualities.

 

In the power energy business, CFP is well-known to investors and stock markets, but it is considerably a huge project as the investment size is around 140 – 160 billion baht. This is one of TOP’s highest investment after the establishment of Thai Oil Refinery 57 years ago on August 3, 1961.

By establishing the fourth refinery unit in the plant (CFP), TOP will step into the class of other global scale refinery plants. The new TOP from 2023 that we will see would…..

1. Increase the capacity to 400,000 bpd after the installation of its fourth refinery unit that can produce 200,000 bpd. This is to replace the 40-50 year old 1st-2nd unit that can produce 9500 bpd altogether.
2. The fourth refinery unit comes with a special feature that is able to refine heavy crude oil, which is cheaper than light crude oil. This will lower the ratio of light crude oil and increase heavy crude oil to 50:50.
3. Increase product value by using a residual hydrocracker unit that can convert all of the fuel oil into diesel and jet fuel which has higher value. This also includes light and heavy naphtha that has higher value for petrochemical business sector.
4. Follow The International Marine Organization (IMO)’s measurement that limits sulphur in fuel oil used on board ships from 3.5% to 0.5% m/m (mass by mass) from January 1, 2020, benefiting TOP’s gross refining margin.

 

To achieve a world class refinery plant, heavy financial costs are unavoidable. Whether the heavy costs is higher or lower, it depends on TOP. However, it is likely to be just a short-term negative for TOP.

Initially, TOP has prepared the fund from its cash flow, institution loans, and capital from bond issuing for this investment that would take about 4 years.

 

TOP’s speculators may get uneasy feelings from the ups and downs of its price, but for the long-term investors, TOP is one of the shares you need to have in your port. Just look at the fact of twice production capacity, higher gross refining margin, and increasing product value. It is certain that this will yield more profits than it has ever done.