Vietnam plans to operate its first oil refinery Dung Quat February 25 of 2009 so as to ease the country&rsquos burgeoning petroleum imports, the Vietnam News Agency reported, citing the plant&rsquos management board.
In a bid to prepare for the hoped operation, the board has recruited and trained 1,046 out of required 1,071 technical staff and operators for the plant.
The board has also prepared and clinched agreements in principle on services, material supply and product distribution with oil and gas corporations.
Water and power tems have been well-prepared for the oil refinery&rsquos trial run and official operation, it said,
The board has formed regulations for harbors of single-point mooring tem (SPM) and the refinery&rsquos product exporting while seeking for complex oil sources to substitute Bach Ho oilfield-source oil that is estimated to fall in volume in the coming year.
State-owned oil monopoly PetroVietnam group, the oil refinerys investor, has recently put into operation firefighting tem at the plant, the agency said.
The tem is equipped with U.S. and French modern devices and technology, a PetroVietnam official said.
During a recent working visit to the oil refinery, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has demanded sufficient manpower for operation of the plant and pledged financial support for contractors in the wake of soaring prices to help them complete their work on schedule.
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.
PetroVietnam has recently sought permission from the prime minister to cooperate with foreign partners to increase annual capacity of the plant to 16.5 million tons from earlier designed 6.5 million tons.
Vietnam spent US$5.92 billion importing 6.81 million metric tons of petroleum products in the first half of this year, up 68.9 per cent on year and 4.4 per cent, respectively, due to the lack of major oil refineries. (Local sources)
Vietnamese
