Prime Minster Thaksin Shinawatra chaired the opening ceremony of the PTT ( PTT Public Company Limited) Gas Separation Plant Unit 5 at the cost of Baht 13.908 billion.

Thailand''s largest gas separation Plant, located next to the Gas Separation Plant Unit 1,2 and 3 in Mab Ta Phut, Rayong Province, has the processing capactiy of 530 miilion cubic feet per day (MMscf/d).

Mr. Prasert Bunsumpun, President of PTT, revealed that the volumes of gas products to be produced by the GSP Unit 5 are ethane 520,000 tons per year, propane and LPG 646,000 tons per year, and NGL 177,000 tons per year.

The combined production can create substantial value toward the country’s petrochemical chains. For example, ethane from the GSP Unit 5 will serve as feed stocks for Thai Olefins Public Company Limited (TOC)’s expansion unit.

TOC’s new olefins plant or TOC’s Olefins Plant Unit 2 will have the production capacity of 300,000 tons of Ethylene per year and will serve as raw materials for other related petrochemical chains such as Ethylene Oxide and Ethylene Glycol - the raw materials for textile and plastic industries.

Not only contributing to the decrease in operating costs for PTT’s Petrochemical Business Group, PTT’s GSP Unit 5 will also bring about the integrated value creation because the annual output of the GSP Unit 5 can help Thailand reduces as much as Bt8.7 billion worth of the import quantity on the raw materials of the intermediate-and-related petrochemical chains.

In addition, GSP Unit 5 can help boost the country’s incomes by Bt7 billion per year via LPG exports. The overall value creation produced by the GSP Unit 5 will be about Bt10.4 billion in which will also help improve Thailand''s Gross Domestic Products (GDP).

Mr. Prasert Bunsumpun added that the construction of the Gas Pipeline Master Plan III will be completed in early next year and will boost the gas transmission capacity by as much as 2,000 MMcf/d.

Therefore, PTT expects to bring about a more value creation on this new gas supply by expanding into the future construction projects of the Gas Separation Units 6, 7 and 8. PTT’s future investment projects over the GSP Units 6, 7 and 8 are the move to prepare for the expansion of Thailand’s Phase III Petrochemical Master Plan.