Suspension of operations at Dung Quat to cost $1 million a day

Vietnam’s first oil refinery, Dung Quat, will suspend its operations for 2 months for the first planned maintenance period, beginning July 15.

The suspension may result in a daily loss of around $1 million in revenues, said the head of Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co. Ltd (BSR), the facility’s operator.

He emphasised, however, that the maintenance is needed to ensure smooth and safe operations of the plant.

BSR has signed contracts with five local and foreign contractors worth $25 million in order to provide maintenance services, including three from South Korea and one from Singapore.

BSR forecast that Vietnamese petroleum wholesalers would have to import one million tonnes of petroleum during suspension.

Since it became operational in February 2009, the Dung Quat plant has turned out over 10 million tonnes of refined fuels, and had revenues of over VND160 trillion ($7.73 billion), according to BSR.

The state-owned Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) was the investor of the Dung Quat, which cost more than $3 billion.

The facility was designed to have a capacity of 6.5 million tonnes per year, which would meet 30 per cent of domestic petroleum demand.

PetroVietnam plans to raise the refinery’s capacity to nearly 10 million tonnes per year by 2015. – VIR

Tags: Dung Quat oil refinery