Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, May 14 -- Construction has begun on Vietnam's $6 billion Nghi Son refinery and petrochemical project in Thanh Hoa province, following directives issued by the country's prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
At groundbreaking, Nguyen said the Nghi Son complex and the Dung Quat refinery, also under construction, will jointly meet some 60% of the country's demand for petroleum products.
Output from the Nghi Son refinery complex is expected to reach 200,000 b/d, with products to include gasoline A92, A95, A98, diesel, kerosine, fuel for reaction engines, and paraxylene.
The Dung Quat refinery, the first of its kind in Vietnam, will begin operating in February 2009, according to Truong Van Tuyen, head of the refinery's management board.
Authorities plan to begin trial runs at the Dung Quat refinery later this month, with all tests due to be completed by August, according to a report in the Saigon Liberation newspaper.
Earlier in May, work was completed on the breakwater for the Dung Quat facility, while the plant's single point mooring system was launched in April.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
