SINGAPORE- Malaysian state oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas, and Saudi Aramco have started operations at their new 1.2-million-tonnes-per-year naphtha cracker, multiple sources familiar the matter said on Wednesday.

The cracker is part of the $2.7 billion joint-venture oil refinery and petrochemical project known as RAPID - or Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development - located in Pengerang in the state of Johor, at the southern tip of peninsular Malaysia.

(Reporting by Florence Tan, Seng Li Peng and Jessica Jaganathan; editing by Christian Schmollinger) ((lipeng.seng@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3086; Reuters Messaging: lipeng.seng.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))