Dung Quat refinery to expand

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai officially ratified the plans to raise the annual capacity of Dung Quat Oil Refinery from 6.5 million tonnes of oil to 10 million tonnes.

The plans were drawn in tandem with the refinery’s investor, Viet Nam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam).

The new plans were agreed upon by the ministries of planning and investment, industry and trade, and construction and finance, said Le Van Dung, deputy director of the Dung Quat Economic Zone’s management board.

“We are still finalising our plans and cannot discuss [our source of captial] at the moment,” said Nguyen Hoai Giang, director general of the Binh Son Refining and Petro-chemical Co Ltd.

Dung Quat, which is located in the Dung Quat Economic Zone, is the country’s first oil refinery and has a total investment capital of US$3 billion. The refinery currently has more than 1,000 employees working at its facilities.

The Dung Quat Oil Refinery currently refines 6.5 million tonnes of crude oil per year, which meets 30 per cent of the country’s total domestic demand.

The refinery is able to produce various kinds of petrol products, including liquefied petroleum gas , A95 and A92 petrol, kerosene, diesel, fuel oil and Jet A1, said Dung.

The refinery was financed entirely by PetroVietnam. The Government has agreed to allow the State company to equitise Dung Quat. Petro-Vietnam is considering selling off 49 per cent of the refinery’s total stake to foreign firms after the plant becomes fully operational and stable.

Economic zone

The Quang Ngai Province’s People’s Committee has asked the Government to expand the Dung Quat Economic Zone to 45,332ha, which would be four times larger than its current area.

The committee also asked the Government to transform Dung Quat zone into an industrialised city with urban areas and ports.

During the first seven months of this year, the zone earned $218 million from exports. Poly-Propylene products, paper materials, wooden furniture, textiles and garments, and machines were the primary commodities that were exported from the zone.

The zone contributed about VND500 billion ($26.3 million) to the State’s budget in July and VND3.5 trillion to the budget during the first seven months.

The PolyPropylene production factory officially commenced operations in July and began churning out the country’s first PolyPropylene products.

The factory is able to produce 150,000 tonnes of petroleum-based products a year. The factory hopes to earn $170-200 million in revenue and $15-20 million in profit per year. -Vietnam News

Tags: Dung Quat Refinery, Vietnam oil