Vietnam to intensify petroleum production

From now to 2010, Vietnam will intensify production of petroleum and petrochemical goods, steel products, manufacturing engineering items, and materials and accessories used in the domestic processing industry, according to local newspaper Saigon Liberation. Citing the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, the four groups of products can be manufactured domestically, so the country can reduce imports of these products in the next few years. Dung Quat, Vietnam’s first refinery with an annual processing capacity of 6.5 million tons of crude oil has been under construction in central Quang Ngai province and is scheduled to be operational by late 2008 or early 2009. (October 22, 2007)