Vietnam aims to raise refining capacity

Government intends to increase the country's oil processing capacity to 60 million tonnes per year.

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Updated on 14 Jun 2011 09:44 GMT

Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade has said that it intends to increase the country's oil processing capacity to aproximately 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), or 60 million tonnes per year, by 2025. The announcement follows this year's inauguration of the country's first oil refinery in Quang Ngai Province, two years after it went on stream. The US$2.5 billion Dung Quat refinery has been unofficially operating since February 2009. Up until the end of December 2010, the plant had received 7.6 million tonnes of crude oil from Bach Ho Oilfield in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, and imported 400,000 tonnes of crude oil. Also by December 2010, the facility had successfully refined 6.75 million of products, and sold over 6.66 million tons of oil and gas. 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. Petrovietnam and Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co. Ltd., the company which runs Dung Quat, have forecast they will produce 5.6 million tonnes of oil products this year and are said to be targeting profits of VND550 billion (US$23.5 million) on revenues of VND73-77 trillion (approx. US$3.85 billion) over the next 12 months. They are also planning an expansion that will raise the plant's product output to 9.2-10.0 million tonnes per year (around 200,000 bpd) by 2016. The government's plan to raise capacity to 60 million tonnes per year by 2025 would include the construction of a refining centre at Dung Quat by the end of 2015. It is estimated that in order for the government to meet its production targets, a total investment of US$32 billion would be needed up to 2025.