However, the country's third-largest refiner by capacity doesn't intend to raise money to finance its expansion projects as the Bt9.36 billion proceeds from its recent initial public offering and cash flow from operations are sufficient, Chainoi said.

The company's executive vice president for finance, accounting and budgeting, Nitima Thepvanangkul, told Dow Jones Newswires that the company hasn't yet decided what type of debt it will issue.

"We are studying many options, which will depend on market conditions. We will try to choose the best to save our financial cost," said she.

She declined to specify what amounts Rayong is looking to refinance but said most of its loans carry floating rates and the company may consider switching part of that debt into fixed rates.

At the end of June, Rayong had total debts of Bt13.02 billion, of which 29 per cent was dollar-denominated and the rest in baht, she said.

Chainoi said the company also has revolving credit facilities worth US$200 million (Bt7.52 billion) available until January 2011 and a further Bt1.8 billion available until December 2013, to support its capital expenditure plans.

He said world demand for oil is still high and he predicted the global economy would grow by 4.9 per cent over the next two years because of huge demand for oil in China.

Although more refineries have been built in India and the Middle East, world refining capacity remains insufficient to meet demand, Chainoi said.

He said he expected refining margins in the second half of this year will tend to be higher than those for the first six months.

Chainoi also said the company plans to shut down its refinery for 24 days in August 2008 in order to connect it to reforming and upgrading complexes, which will be completed about that time.

After this is complete, the company will have a production capacity of 210,000 barrels per day, up from 145,000 bpd at present.

While the refinery is shut down, the company also plans to conduct some maintenance work to reduce the duration of its regular maintenance shutdown of 20 days in 2010.

Chainoi said RRC has also been added to the Morgan Stanley Capital Inter-national (MSCI) index series, effective from the stock market close on August 31.

The company has been weighted in the index series because its market capitalisation has risen to Bt59 billion and its share volume is in the top ten almost every day.

He said RRC would benefit from being weighted, because more foreign investors would pay attention to its stock.

Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul

The Nation