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Vietnam's only oil refinery, the Dung Quat plant, may restart production in early July following a six-week shutdown, a company executive said on Monday.

The refining facility, located in Quang Ngai Province, had been due to restart towards the end of June, however it now appears that the date could be put back.

"We still aim to resume production on June 25-27, but there is the possibility of delaying to early July because of the pace of the equipment checks," said , chief executive of Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co. Ltd., operator of the refinery.

The US$2.5 billion Dung Quat refinery was closed on May 16 for an equipment check before final acceptance from oil services firm Technip.

Built at a cost of over US$3 billion by state-owned PetroVietnam (the trading name of The Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PVN)) the refinery currently has the capacity to process 6.0-6.5 million tonnes of crude oil per year, or 130,500 bpd. It produces fuel oil, jet fuel, liquefied petroleum gas, kerosene, diesel, A92 and A95 gasoline and polypropylene.