Vietnam Needs At Least Three Oil Refineries by 2020

Vietnam Needs At Least Three Oil Refineries by 2020

Vietnam, the six largest crude oil exporter in Asia, is in need of at least three oil refineries with an average annual capacity of 6 million tons each by 2020 to meet around 50 per cent of local demand for the distillate fuel, according to expertise forecasts.

The Southeast Asian nation is forecast to need 19 million tons of refined oil in 2010 and 31 million tons in 2020 to feed its own energy demand, by half of the global average.

According to the governmental statistics, Vietnam’s refined oil imports increase about 6 per cent year after year. Its respective imported volumes were 7.533 million tons in 2000; 8.013 million tons in 2001; 8.96 million tons in 2002, 9.841 million tons in 2003 and 12 million tons in 2004.

The total capital for the three needed refineries is projected to stand around US$7.5 billion.

Up to now, the Vietnam’s oil and gas monopoly PetroVietnam has signed an turnkey deal estimated at US$2.5 billion to build major facilities for the country’s first Dung Quat oil refinery in central Vietnam.

The plan to build Nghi Son oil refining project in northern Thanh Hoa province is also being sped up.

Furthermore, the petrochemical industry will also need a large volume of materials for production by 2010 when Vietnam’s population is estimated to reach 100 million.

By 2010, it annually needs 4.5 million tons of plastics, four million tons of urea fertilizers and 700,000 tons of polyester and fiber.

The following table shows capital needed for major oil refining and petrochemical projects in Vietnam by 2015.

Vietnam Economic Times