Saturday, December 20, 2008

Petrolimex gets nod for another refinery

The government has agreed in principle to allow the Vietnam National Petroleum Corporation (Petrolimex) to build a new oil refinery in central Khanh Hoa Province, a company official told Thanh Nien Daily Friday.

The refinery, with a designed capacity of processing 6-7 million tons of crude oil a year, will have a total investment of about US$5 billion, said Petrolimex Vice General Director Vuong Thai Dung. “We are preparing a feasibility study for the project,” he said.

Petrolimex is considering inviting foreign partners to cooperate in implementing the project, he said. “Besides contributing capital to the project, they will have to arrange a stable supply of crude oil for it.”

Covering 600 hectares in Khanh Hoa, the refinery, which is scheduled to start operations in 2013, will turn out products for both local consumption and export, he said.

“However, we will prioritize using the refinery’s products to serve our country’s socio economic development, local consumption, and national security,” Dung said.

Vietnam, Southeast Asia’s third-largest crude oil producer, plans to build seven refinery projects with a combined capacity of 60-70 million tons of crude oil a year.

The Nghi Son refinery in central Thanh Hoa Province is under construction, while the $2.5 billion Dung Quat plant in Quang Ngai Province capable of processing 6.5 million tons a year is scheduled to start operations next February. The rest of the projects are either in the planning stage or have been deferred.

The country imported over 11.8 million tons of petroleum products worth $10.6 billion in the first 11 months of this year, up 3.1 percent in volume and 58.3 percent in value over the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office.
Source: thanhnien

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