Petrolimex to boost investment in oil refining

State-owned Vietnam National Petroleum Corp. (Petrolimex), the biggest petroleum distributor in the country, will be pouring money into oil refining, petrochemical production and the development of upstream oil fields in 2009, Petrolimex Deputy General Director Vuong Thai Dung announced. Among the company’s plans is the accelerated preparation for the construction of a US$4.5 billion petrochemical and oil refinery complex in Van Phong Bay’s economic zone in the south central province of Khanh Hoa. Petrolimex aims to make the complex operational in 2013, Dung said. Its plans for development were made possible by a net profit of 152 billion dong (US$8.72 million) in 2008, which it earned mostly by trading nearly 1.6 million tons of petroleum to other Asian countries. The corporation also earned 5.74 trillion dong (US$329.22 million) from transporting petroleum to other countries via two of its vessels, which have a loading capacity of 300,000 DWT each. (January 20, 2009)