Shinpetrol to operate mini-refinery

Vinashin Petroleum Investment and Transport JSC (Shinpetrol) will start operations of a small oil refinery in southern Can Tho City in Vietnam in September, Director Nguyen Duy Hung said. The refinery will process 2,000 barrels per day to produce oil products including fuel oil, diesel fuel, LPG and gasoline. Output will be raised by 10 times to 20,000 barrels a day in the second phase, Hung said. No information on the expansion program was given. The refinery will have a small terminal for 1,000-DWT vessels. However, the port will be capable of accommodating tankers of about 10,000 DWT after the upgrading. Shinpetrol, a subsidiary of Vietnam’s largest shipbuilder Vinashin, has set a target to achieve revenues of VND752 billion (US$45.1 million) this year. Vietnam currently entirely relies on oil product imports, as it currently has no major oil refinery. Its first large-scale oil refinery, Dung Quat, will have a capacity of 130,000 barrels per day when it begins operations in February 2009. (August 31, 2007)