Pengerang Refining and Petrochemical (PrefChem), a joint venture between Malaysia’s state oil firm Petronas and the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), has begun to restart a crude distillation unit (CDU) at its oil refinery in Malaysia, Petronas told Reuters over email.

The Pengerang Refining development, part of Petronas’ $27 billion Pengerang Integrated Complex, houses an oil refinery capable of producing 300, 000 barrels per day and a petrochemical complex with a 7.7mn tonnes per year production capacity.

Locate in the southern Malaysian state of Johor, the project formerly known as RAPID (Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development) had to be shut down in April earlier this year after a fire damaged its atmospheric residue desulphurisation (ARDS) unit. The ARDS is scheduled to come back online in 2020, according to Petronas.

The Reuters report quoted sources saying that since repairs at the unit would take months, the refinery has modified the type of crude it processes to low-sulphur oil such as Murban crude from Abu Dhabi.

According to Refinitiv data, the refinery’s strong demand for Murban crude saw Malaysia’s imports of the oil jump to about 4.6 million barrels in June and July.