Vietnam to Cut Crude Oil Exports by 4M Tons ThisYr to Fuel First Refinery

The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade has recently decided to slash crude oil export target by between 3.5 million tons and four million tons this year, and by between five million tons and six million tons in 2010 to fuel the nation’s first oil refinery Dung Quat.

 

If based on average crude oil export price in 2008, the volume reduction will lead to a value fall of US$6 billion, accounting for between 9 per cent and 10 per cent of the national total export revenue, the Communist Party of Vietnam said.

 

Early this year, the state-run oil monopoly PetroVietnam group announced that Vietnam would decrease crude oil export by three million tons to 11.68 million tons this year.

 

The decrease aims to ensure the national crude oil reserve, according to PetroVietnam.

 

The Dung Quat oil refinery has produced 2,000 tons of diesel and 1,200 tons of kerosene since becoming operational on Feb 22 this year and is expected to refine 3.5 million tons of crude oil into 2.6 million tons of products during this year.

 

The US$3.1 billion refinery is scheduled to run at 60 per cent-65 per cent of the designed capacity from February to June, at 70 per cent in June-August, and at full capacity as from late August.

 

Once running at full capacity, the plant is estimated to offer to market 150,000 tons of gasoline; 240,000 tons of diesel; 23,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG); over 8,000 tons of propylene; 30,000 tons of Jet-A1 fuel; and 25,000 tons of fuel oil (FO) monthly. (CPV)