Vietnam’s second refinery looking at doubling capacity

The Nghi Son Oil Refinery and Petrochemistry complex (NSRP) which is being built in Vietnam’s central province of Thanh Hoa, for completion in mid-2017, is looking at doubling its 200,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) capacity.

The Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Limited Liability Co., a joint venture formed by Kuwait Petroleum International (35.1%), Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd (35.1%), Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation or PetroVietnam (25.1%) and Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (4.7%), is the owner of the project.

Reuters quoted the JV’s General Director and Idemitsu representative Kazutoshi Shimmura as saying that amid an outlook for an extended oil supply shortage in the country, expansion would be considered. Officially, a spokesperson from Japan’s third largest oil refinery said the expansion is not yet in the cards.

Vietnam is reliant on imported fuel and petrochemical products and demand for refined products has grown 8.7% per annum over the past eight years. It has one operating refinery, the 140,000 bpd Dung Quat refinery in Quảng Ngãi Province, near the port of Vũng Tàu, which came online in 2009. State-owned PetroVietnam is looking to boost crude distillation capacity in Dung Quat to around 200,000 bpd by 2017 and to develop Dung Quat’s ability to handle sweet and less expensive sour crude oil from Russia, the Middle East and Venezuela. A third refinery, the Vung Ro refinery in Phu Yen Province located in Vietnam’s south central coast close to the Bai Goc deepwater seaport is expected to be completed in 2019.

Licensed in 2008, NSRP will be Vietnam’s largest refinery. When completed it will produce 2.3 million tonnes of gasoline and 3.7 million tonnes of diesel fuel per year. Investment in the project is USD 9.9 billion.