Eric Watkins
Oil Diplomacy Editor
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 11 -- Technostar Management and its partner Telloil have postponed the construction of a $1.7 billion refinery in central Vietnam due to slow site clearance, according to state media.
The Vung Ro refinery, to be owned 51% by Technostar and 49% by Telloil, will be built in Phu Yen province, 1,160 km south of Hanoi, according to a Vietnam News report.
On completion, it is expected to supply the domestic market with 4 million tonnes/year of petroleum products, including liquefied petroleum gas, benzene, gasoline, diesel, fuel for reactive power, and sulfur.
Refinery construction will begin early next year instead of late this year as initially planned, said Vietnam News, citing Pham Ngoc Chi, Phu Yen provincial People's committee chairman, at a recent provincial meeting.
The postponement stems from a delay in the land clearance process as the province has yet to complete construction of a resettlement zone and administrative facilities required to provide housing for 5,100 people the project will displace.
Phu Yen People's Committee granted an investment license for the refinery in November. It will be built on a 200 ha inland area and 210 ha on the waterfront near Vung Ro seaport in Tuy Hoa District.
Other refineries
Vietnam currently has no oil refineries, but has three under construction or in planning stages.
The Dung Quat refinery, under construction in central Quang Ngai province, is scheduled to begin operations in February 2009.
Wholly owned by Petrovietnam, the Dung Quat facility has a design capacity of 6.5 million tonnes/year and is expected to meet a third of the country's demand for oil products (OGJ Online, Sept. 23, 2008).
Plans also call for two other refineries, one at Nghi Son in central Thanh Hoa province and the other at Long Son in southern Ba Ria.
Altogether, the three refineries will have a combined production output of some 20 million tonnes/year through 2012.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
