Lao Petroleum & Chemical Co. Ltd. (LCPC)—also known as Lao-China Dongyan Petrochemical Co. Ltd., Lao Petrochemical Co. Ltd., and Laos Petrochemical Co. Ltd.—a China-Laos joint venture, has started up the first 1-million tonnes/year phase of its grassroots 3-million tpy refinery inside the energy and chemical district of the Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone (VSDZ) in Vientiane, Laos.
Commissioned in late-November 2020, the first $179.2-million phase of the refinery—Laos’ first and only—comes as part of Laos’ plan to meet domestic demand and reduce its complete reliance on foreign imports of transportation fuels, the Laotian government said via the official Laos News Agency.
Once completed, the Vientiane refinery—Phases 2 and 3 of which will lift processing capacity another 2 million tpy to 3 million tpy—also will include a new 80-million l. petroleum products storage terminal, according to the government.
Part of Laotian and Chinese enterprises’ response to the government of China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative to increase cooperation and enhance bilateral economic and trade with surrounding countries, the overall $2-billion Vientiane refinery project—which began development in 2014 as a joint investment of Yunnan Construction & Investment Holding Group Co. Ltd. (YCIHC) subsidiary Yunnan Provincial Overseas Investment Co. Ltd. (YOIC; 75%), Lao State Fuel Co. (20%), and Lao-China Joint Venture Investment Co. Ltd. (5%)—is scheduled to be fully completed in 2022-23, YOIC said.
Phase 1 of the recently commissioned refinery is designed to produce Euro 5-quality gasoline, diesel, aromatics, LPG, and sulfur, with Phases 2-3 adding additional gasoline and diesel production capacity, as well as capacities for production of aviation kerosine, road asphalt, polypropylene, according to YOIC and a Dec. 8, 2020 release from EBICO SRL subsidiary EBICO (China) Environment Co. Ltd., which delivered its proprietary EBICO EC-GGR series ultralow-nitrogen burner technology for the refinery’s 35-tonnes/hr medium-pressure steam boilers.
In a Dec. 13, 2019, release, Zhejiang SUPCON Technology Co Ltd.—which delivered distributed control and safety instrumented systems for the project—said Phase 1 of the Vientiane refinery also includes the following units and corresponding capacities:
- 300,000 tpy; semiregenerative reforming.
- 500,000 tpy; diesel hydrotreating.
- 80,000 tpy; benzene extraction.
- 5,000 tpy; sulfur recovery.
At the Nov. 30, 2020, ceremony commemorating Phase 1 commissioning, Khemmani Pholsena—Laos’ minister of industry and commerce and chairwoman of the Lao-China Cooperation Committee—said startup of LCPC’s Vientiane refinery comes just ahead of the 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Laos, which the two countries will celebrate in 2021, according to Dec. 1 releases from YCIHC and YOIC.
