Kuwait to invest US$600M in Vietnam’s Nghi Son refinery

Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) announced that it will invest in a Vietnamese refinery and petrochemical project. KPI will contribute US$600 million to the proposed US$6 billion Nghi Son refinery and petrochemical project in Vietnam’s central Thanh Hoa Province. KPI holds a 35.1% stake in the project, along with partners Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd., Mitsui Chemicals Inc., and PetroVietnam Corp. Vietnam will also import crude oil from Kuwait as feedstock for the refinery, which is due to become operational in late 2012 or early 2013. Up until the launch of the Dung Quat refinery in February, Vietnam was totally reliant on product imports to meet demand. Investing in Nghi Son will also allow Kuwait Petroleum International to benefit from distributing oil products directly to the domestic market as stipulated by a previous government regulation. (March 17, 2009)