Petrovietnam in talks to sell part of stake in Dung Quat oil refinery

State-run PetroVietnam is in talks to sell a 49% stake in the Dung Quat oil refinery to three foreign companies, the refinery’s director general said. “We are trying to sell the stake as soon as possible, so that we will have funds for expanding the refinery,” Nguyen Hoai Giang told Dow Jones Newswires. He said the parties have not yet reached agreement on the value of the refinery, however. Giang is the general director of the Binh Son Refinery Ltd. Co., which is the management unit of Dung Quat oil refinery. PetroVietnam has said it will use the money raised from selling the stake to expand the refinery’s annual capacity to 10 million metric tons, or 200,000 barrels a day, from 6.5 million tons. A feasibility study on the expansion will be completed by the end of this month, and the sale may take place after. Dung Quat, the only refinery currently operating in Vietnam, supplies about one-third of the country’s oil product demand. (March 13, 2012)