Vietnam to Start Construction of First Oil Refinery Next Week

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dzung yesterday gave nod to the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Corporation (PetroVietnam) to kick off construction of the country’s long-delayed first oil refinery in Dung Quat of central Quang Ngai province next Monday, November 28.

 

The Dung Quat oil refinery, which is capable to process 6.5 million tons of crude oil each year, is expected to start operation in 2009 to meet 40 per cent of Vietnam’s petroleum demand.

 

On May 17 of this year, PetroVietnam signed an engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contract with a four-party consortium comprising France’s Technip Conflexip, Malaysia’s Technip Geoproduction, Japan’s JGC, and Spain’s Technicas for the construction of main facilities of the oil refinery.

 

The consortium will take 44 months from when the contract takes effect on June 25 to complete the $1.56-billion EPC contract, which includes construction of the refinery’s technology workshop (Bid 1) and crude oil pipeline and oil float (Bid 4).

 

Vietnam will build the second oil refinery in the central northern province of Thanh Hoa and the third plant in central Phu Yen province.