Vietnamese firm to build oil refinery in central region

HANOI, Jul 21, 2008 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- SNP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- State-owned Vietnam National Petroleum Corporation (Petrolimex) plans to build an oil refinery with annual processing capacity of 10 million tons of crude oil in the country's central Khanh Hoa province with investment of 4.5 billion U.S. dollars, Vietnam News Agency reported Monday.

Chairman of Petrolimex's management board Vu Ngoc Hai said the corporation and its foreign partner, China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), are planning to survey the project's site to make an initial report to relevant agencies. Crude oil is scheduled to be imported from either Singapore or the Middle East to feed the oil refinery.

Petrolimex has 43 affiliates and 34 branches nationwide apart from three joint ventures with foreign countries and one branch in Singapore.

Listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai, Sinopec is China's biggest oil refiner.

Dung Quat, Vietnam's first refinery with an annual processing capacity of 6.5 million tons of crude oil under construction with investment of 2.5 billion dollars in central Quang Ngai province, is scheduled to operate in February 2009.

Construction of the second oil refinery named Nghi Son in northern Thanh Hoa province with initial investment of 6.2 billion dollars started in May. It will have refinery capacity of 10 million tons of crude oil per annum once put into operation in 2013.

Vietnam exported 6.7 million tons of crude oil worth 5.6 billion dollars in the first half of this year, down 12.1 percent in volume but up 49 percent in value, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

Meanwhile, it spend 6.8 billion dollars importing 5.9 million tons of petroleum products, posting respective year-on-year rises of 68.9 percent and 4.4 percent.

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