Largest oil refinery project to be signed in October

Vietnamese and foreign partners are making preparations for the signing of an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the Nghi Son refinery and petrochemical complex expected to be the largest of its kind in Vietnam.

Cao Hoai Duong, deputy director of the Nghi Son Oil Refinery and Petrochemical Ltd. Co., says many contractors from Japan, the Republic of Korea, Italy and the US, have put in bids for the project.

Though the value of the contract is made public in October 2010, it will be the largest EPC petrochemical project in Vietnam, Duong says.

The project management unit is working closely with the Thanh Hoa provincial people’s committee to relocate local residents, and with the PetroVietnam Construction Joint Stock Corporation (PVC) to clear unexploded ordnance and level off 390ha of land to be handed over to contractors in early October.

The project will be located in the Nghi Son economic zone in Thanh Hoa province – about 150km south of Hanoi. It has an estimated capital of US$6.2 billion contributed by the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PVN), the Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan Ltd. Co. (IKC) and Japan’s Mitsui Chemicals Inc. (MCI).

This petrochemical complex will be designed to produce 10 million tonnes of petroleum products a year – 1.5 times higher than the design capacity of the existing Dung Quat oil refinery.

Once it is operational in 2014, the refinery will annually churn out 2.3 million tonnes of petrol, 3.7 million tonnes of diesel and a significant amount of liquefied gas (LPG) for domestic use.

Nghi Son and Dung Quat refineries together are expected to meet 50 percent of the country’s demand for petrol and oil.

Tags: Nghi Son refinery and petrochemical complex, Vietnam oil and gas