Vietnam to Triple Capacity of First Oil Refinery to 16.5 Mln Tons/year

The state-owned oil monopoly PetroVietnam group is seeking the Vietnamese government&rsquos approval to cooperate with foreign partners to triple annual capacity of the Dung Quat oil refinery to 16.5 million tons, PetroVietnam CEO Dinh La Thang said.

 

Dung Quat oil refinery, the first of its kind in Vietnam, has been designed to have a total capacity of 6.5 million tons, he said.

 

&ldquoThe expansion will enable the refinery to operate more effectively to meet the domestic demand for petroleum products and contribute to Vietnam&rsquos energy security,&rdquo Mr. Thang told the Vietnam Investment Review (VIR) newspaper.

 

The move will also take full advantage of available modern infrastructure of the oil refinery in particular and Dung Quat economic zone in general, the official said.

 

PetroVietnam, however, has not yet specified the expansion schedule for Dung Quat oil refinery.

 

The US$2.5-billion oil refinery, with expected products of propylene, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), lead-free petrol, diesel and fuel oil, is under construction in central Quang Ngai province, and is estimated refine 33 per cent of the country&rsquos entire demand for petrol and oil once fully operational in February 2009.

 

Without major refineries, Vietnam has to import almost all of petroleum products for domestic consumption. In the first six months, the country spent US$5.92 billion importing 6.81 million metric tons of petroleum products, up 68.9 per cent on year and 4.4 per cent, respectively, said the General Statistics Office (GSO). (Vietnam Investment Review)