PetroVietnam to build Vietnam’s largest petrochemical complex

PetroVietnam, the state-owned oil company, has decided to build what will be Vienam’s largest petrochemical facility, The Nikkei reports. The total cost for the complex, which will consist of a refinery and a chemical plant, is estimated at more than US$10 billion. Construction is expected to start as early as 2011, and operations could begin in 2014. Around this fall, PetroVietnam will select foreign business partners for a joint venture to run the refinery. As for the chemical plant, the firm has already decided to team up with the Siam Cement Group of Thailand and other players. The site is located in the Long Son district of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, about 100 km from Ho Chi Minh City. The refinery, Vietnam’s third, will have a daily processing capacity of 200,000 barrels of crude oil, all of which will be imported. The complex will produce gasoline, diesel fuel and liquefied petroleum gas. These products will at first be shipped domestically, and in the future exported to neighboring countries as well. PetroVietnam is currently in the final stages of joint-venture talks with a number of foreign firms. “We will decide on partners at the end of the third quarter or the beginning of the fourth,” said a company official. (August 3, 2009)