Salim to join RP group

Salim to join RP group

MANILA (Reuter): Indonesia's largest conglomerate, the Salim
Group, is eying a stake in the proposed US$500 million naphtha
cracker project of the Philippine National Oil Co-Petrochemical
Development Corp (PPDC).

"They are looking at a 5 to 10 percent stake in the naphtha
cracker project," Antonio Garcia, chairman of Petrochemicals Corp
of Asia Pacific (Petrocorp) told Reuters.

Petrocorp is a consortium which is also eying a 10 to 15
percent stake in the naphtha project. Garcia said the Petrocorp
board approved its participation in the project last week.

Other companies which earlier expressed interest to be part of
the consortium that will put up the plant are Petron Corp,
British Petroleum, Sumitomo Corp, Foster Wheeler, Itochu Corp of
Japan, and a local consortium Bataan Polyethylene Corp.

Roberto Garcia, PPDC president, told Reuters that there will
be a joint announcement by PPDC and Petron in November regarding
the naphtha project. He declined to elaborate. Petron is being
offered the biggest stake in the naphtha project at 35 percent.

The naphtha cracker with a capacity of 500,000 tons a year is
slated to be ready for commercial operation by the year 2000.