Interview with Mr. Mohammad Wasi Khan

Mr. Mohammad Wasi Khan
Mr. Mohammad Wasi Khan
President- Chemical Manufacturing Business, BOPL
Byco Group
Byco Group

The only sector that has the largest potential & development therein can work as stimulus to downstream, is production of base chemicals.
Headquartered in Karachi-Pakistan, Byco Oil Pakistan Limited is a subsidiary of Byco Group that embarks presently around PKR 75 billion consolidated turnover annually which in near future will run into over PKR 300 Billion upon commissioning of its second oil refinery. Byco Group was founded by the Founder Chairman, Mr. Parvez Abbasi (Late) in mid-90’s with a vision to pioneer the change in the energy sector of Pakistan. With his vision, the company Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited was formed in January 1995 as public limited company. Companies under Byco umbrella are: Byco Oil Pakistan Limited (BOPL), Oil Refining & Chemical Manufacturing, Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited (BPPL), Oil Refining & Petroleum Marketing, Universal Terminal Limited (UTL), and Infrastructure & Logistics. In April 7, 2006, Byco Oil Pakistan Limited (BOPL), in an effort to further expand its presence in the local oil refinery and petrochemical industry, commenced work on a 120,000 bpd refinery and a 27,300 bpd Aromatics plant. Byco's operational refinery has a capacity to refine 35,000 barrels a day of crude oil into various saleable components including Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Light Naphtha, Heavy Naphtha, High Octane Blending Component, Motor Gasoline, Kerosene, Jet Fuels, High Speed Diesel and Furnace Oil. Mr. Mohammad Wasi Khan is the President of Chemical Manufacturing Business, BOPL, since 2009. Mr. Khan has 31 years of experience in oil and gas industry. He initiated his career in Saudi Arabia, Aramco, in Operations Engineering, then joined National Refinery Limited (NRL) Karachi in 1981. He held various key positions in all operations, technical and business functions of the refinery to become Deputy Managing Director (Operations). In 2005, he moved to Bosicor Pakistan Limited as President & CEO. He has on his credit a number of successfully completed major refinery projects. Byco’s oil marketing business was initiated by him which now has grown to become 6th largest Oil Marketing Company in Pakistan. In Face2Face, talking with Ms. Madhu Soni- Sr. Editor & Correspondent, Mr. Md. Wasi Khan discusses about Building-block petrochemicals at length.

Mr. Wasi Khan, welcome to Face2Face!! Initiating the talk, may we request your word on how BYCO finds itself placed in Petrochemical segment over the globe and in Pakistan?

Pakistan is a market of 180 million people where, like any developing nation, products based on petrochemicals are visibly growing which, presently, due to lack of indigenous manufacturing facilities for base chemical, is creating a huge potential for such facility and Byco is the first to take a step in this direction. Second, Byco is an integrated oil refinery where upgradation stems from the top of the barrel conversion. Production of petrochemical will bring economic stronghold for the Company particularly when the feedstock naphtha is available from its own refinery and other local refineries. Presently all local refineries are exporting their Naphtha as surplus product to far eastern countries as feedstock to petrochemical plants merely to be imported back in the shape of finished petrochemicals in the country.

Well, talking Building-block in specific, until 1991 no production facilities for petrochemicals viz. Polyolefin, Olefin etc. existed. In the view of current market, what state exists?

As it is, to date there has been no change with respect to the production of base chemicals or building block petrochemicals; olefins and aromatics in the country. There have been larger developments in the downstream side though. The country has a PTA facility with current capacity of 350,000 TPA, which is planned to be doubled in next 4 to 5 years. Byco’s Aromatics Complex will be the first in the building block petrochemicals/aromatics.

So, considering what you said; how will these ‘larger developments in PTA’ affect the domestic Paraxylene market?

Ever since Korean company Lotte has acquired the Karachi based PTA facility (originally established by ICI), they are going on a progressive path. Recently, there have been indications from them for almost doubling the capacity. Of course with the increase in domestic requirement of Para Xylene, there will be pressures on the supply end, and for which, I suppose, local and regional sources should be geared up. As for Byco going into PTA production, we can consider this option in future but we will prefer to remain on the base chemicals side for the time being or at least for next 5 years though we have plans in future to add on Naphtha cracker as base chemicals' second branch.

Mr. Khan present issues viz. energy scarcity, inflation, challenges in raw material procurement, low domestic consumption etc, that impact textile industry at large, are talk of the town in Pakistani industrial arena. How would you comment on the intensity of these issues and solutions that may aid to overcome?

The present scenario presents various impediments on macroeconomic level. Yet the consumer demand of finished products is large enough to justify indigenous production which is currently less and the deficit is made up from imports. The only sector that has the largest potential & development therein can work as stimulus to downstream, is production of base chemicals. The biggest advantage for the local market that our petrochemical facility will bring would be the availability of raw material for downstream industry like PTA, LAB, Plasticizers etc.

That’s good.<br></br> However, adding to macro-economic woes, downturn in strong regions like US, Europe and some Asian regions remain concern for emerging countries. For sector specific to petrochemicals, how do such happenings bode, and what consequences it brings along on the downstream sector?

The foremost important factor in determining profitable sustainability of petrochemical industry is the availability and price of naphtha which is used as feedstock of petrochemical industries. Naphtha is inherently and closely linked with oil prices and so is the sensitivity at the time of crises. When the higher oil prices become difficult to be passed on to downstream industries, such as the petrochemicals, then its first effect is seen with the falling profitability. The financial crises result into weak markets and breakdowns in the commodity prices. Consequently, it appears in the shape of the narrowing demand and oversupply in capacity, which clearly indicates the petrochemical sector will soon enter the bottom part of the market cycle. This however will be region centric and hopefully more conservative zones such as sub-continent countries will be less affected.

Now as we conclude the talk, would you like to give an account on Byco Group activities, its present operations, projects in hand and other future plans?

Byco Group is an emerging player in the energy sector of Pakistan. The Group is already operating one oil refinery, and aggressively expanding its presence in the oil marketing sector of the country. Byco Group is also spearheading investment in the energy sector of Pakistan by setting up its second oil refinery and a petrochemical complex, which is going to be the largest oil refinery and the first petrochemical plant in the country.

Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited and Byco Oil Pakistan Limited are the two companies owned by Byco Industries Incorporated (BII) which is registered in Mauritius. BII, is jointly owned by Byco Busient Inc. (“BBI”) and Abraaj Mauritius Oil and Gas Limited (“Abraaj”) in the ratio of 60% and 40% respectively. BPPL owns and operates a 35,000 bpd oil refinery, which is located about 50 km from the center of Karachi. The refinery started off its commercial operations in 2004. This oil refinery produces full range of fuel products; LPG, Naphtha, Motor Gasoline, Jet Fuel, Diesel and Furnace Oil. Besides oil refinery, the Company also has oil marketing activities. It presently holds a network of over 215 retail stations spread all across the country for motor gasoline, diesel and lubricants sales.

For value addition and environmental upgradation, the Company is adding an Isomerization plant in its configuration, which will be the first in the country. This plant is presently under construction and its mechanical completion and commissioning is planned in the 4th quarter of 2011. Capacity of this plant is 12,500 bpd and it was designed and licensed by UOP, USA. After commissioning, it will substantially enhance the production of environment friendly Motor Gasoline of Euro 2 standard from BPPL.

Besides having an oil refinery and OMC retail network, the Company also owns a 100% subsidiary company by the name of Universal Oil Terminal Company (UTL) for undertaking projects and businesses related to infrastructure development and services. UTL owns and operates an oil terminal located at the Oil Installation Area of Karachi Port Trust (KPT), the main sea port of Karachi. UTL is also establishing the country’s first single point mooring (SPM) jetty for import of crude oil. This SPM is being located 12 km from the coast inside the deep sea and has a 15 km length of on-shore and off-shore pipeline connecting SPM and the refinery.

BOPL, the second company of Byco Group has two mega projects. First is an oil refinery project, which is under construction and is presently at an advanced stage of mechanical completion. Commissioning of the refinery is planned in 4th Quarter of 2011. The designed capacity of refinery is 120,000 bpd and it is being built up adjacent to BPPL’s operating refinery. Second is the project of petrochemical complex which is housed within the site where BPPL’s existing oil refinery and the BOPL’s refinery project are located. The Petrochemical Complex (also known as Aromatics Complex) will be the first of its kind in the country. It will convert Naphtha into more value Aromatic products which are high in demand in the country and regional markets. Full scale construction activities on petrochemical complex are planned to commence in first quarter of 2012 for completion in 18 months. The commissioning of the plant is timed to take place in mid 2013. Post commissioning of Aromatics Complex, Byco plans to expand its Paraxylene production capacity over three folds by adding a Parex Unit as Phase 2.

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Published on: 03/10/2011

DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.