Vietnam to delay 2nd refinery tender till Dec

State oil and gas group Petrovietnam will delay announcing the winner of a tender to build the 200,000-bpd Nghi Son refinery until December, the official Vietnam News Agency said in a report.

State oil and gas group Petrovietnam will delay announcing the winner of a tender to build the 200,000-bpd Nghi Son refinery until December, the official Vietnam News Agency said in a report.

Several bidders have asked to extend the tender deadline for Vietnam’s second such facility by four months so that they can better prepare bidding documents, but Petrovietnam only agreed with a delay by “two months and a half to ensure the project’s progress,” the report seen on Thursday said.

It was published by the agency’s online news distributing arm, Vietnam Plus (www.vietnamplus.vn), quoting the state oil group.

In June, an official of Petrovietnam-run Nghi Son Oil Refinery and Petrochemical Co was quoted in a state media report as saying the firm planned to sign the engineering, procurement and construction contract with the winning bidder in October.

The Vietnam News Agency said so far three consortiums of companies from Japan, France, Italy, South Korea, Spain and Taiwan have submitted bids for the tender. It did not name any firms.

Petrovietnam has been developing the refinery in Nghi Son of the northern province of Thanh Hoa, 215 km (134 miles) south of Hanoi, in a venture with Kuwait Petroleum International, Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan Co and Mitsui Chemicals Inc .

Construction of the Nghi Son refinery was initially scheduled to be completed in late 2013. The Vietnam News Agency report said the refinery will start commercial production in 2014, as scheduled. It did not give an exact date.

Last Friday Idemitsu Kosan said it has delayed the projected start of operations of the Nghi Son plant to sometime in 2014, reflecting a slight delay involving a final investment decision by the end of March 2011 from 2010.

Idemitsu Kosan and Kuwait Petroleum International each hold a 35.1 percent stake in the venture, while Petrovietnam owns 25.1 percent and Mitsui Chemicals has the remaining 4.7 percent.

Once operational, the new refinery and Dung Quat, Vietnam’s first oil refinery, will together meet 80 percent of domestic oil product consumption. – Reuters

Tags: Nghi Son refinery, Vietnam oil and gas