Dung Quat refinery resumes full operations

Vietnam’s first oil refinery resumed operations on October 1, after more than a month of standstill due to a valve breakdown, the government of Vietnam said on its website, citing Nguyen Hoai Giang, general director of Binh Son Oil Refining and Petrochemical Co. On October 1, the plant ran at 65% of its designed capacity. The Dung Quat refinery will start operating at full capacity on October 25, said Truong Van Tuyen, deputy general director of the state-owned Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam). The refinery produced a combined 436,029 tons of products from its operation on February 22 through mid-August. PetroVietnam hopes the US$3 billion refinery will produce a total of 2.02 million tons of petroleum products by the end of 2009, which is lower than its earlier target of 2.6 million tons. (October 2/12, 2009)