PetroVietnam, Military Bank sign refinery deal

Vietnam’s Military Bank (MB) has reached an agreement with state-owned oil monopoly Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam). PetroVietnam needs 185 trillion dong (US$10.88 billion) to carry out projects including local and international oil and gas exploration as well as construction and maintenance of power plants, formulation of energy schemes and management of real estate. Built at a total cost of US$3.1 billion, the refinery has already received a preferential loan of US$1 billion from the Vietnam Development Bank (VDB), a soft loan worth US$250 million from the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) and US$200 million from the Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank). PetroVietnam will invest US$250 million to build 360 compressed natural gas filling stations to refuel buses. The first two stations will be built in Ho Chi Minh City and Ba Ria Vung Tau province by July. PetroVietnam will sell a maximum 49% stake in the Dung Quat refinery to its strategic partners in 2010. Dung Quat, Vietnam’s first refinery, became operational on end-February expecting to produce 66,000 metric tons of products in the second quarter. The refinery would process 80,000 tons, or about 6,500 barrels per day (bpd), of crude oil for April-June operations. The plant produced 2,440 tons of fuels from its start date until end March. The company also said the refinery will operate at 70% capacity by June and at 100% by August. (April 7/8/13, 2009)