Long-delayed Binh Dinh oil refinery project still uncertain

The Nhon Hoi oil refinery and petrochemical complex will use 660,000 barrels of crude oil per day, equivalent to 30 million tonnes per year. (Source: vietstock.vn)

Binh Dinh (VNA) - The long-awaited multi-billion US dollar refinery project in the central province of Binh Dinh is facing an uncertain future after nearly three years of registration for investment.

In 2009, the project of PTT Public Company Limited (Thailand) attracted public attention right from its initial days. Under the original plan, this giant project was to be licensed in June 2015, but that has not happened yet.

The undertaking was initially estimated to cost 28.7 billion USD but was revised down to nearly 22 billion USD in the feasibility study. Thai oil and gas company PTT had partnered with Saudi Aramco for a proposed 22 bln USD refinery and petrochemical complex in Vietnam.

The Nhon Hoi oil refinery and petrochemical complex will use 660,000 barrels of crude oil per day, equivalent to 30 million tonnes per year.

The project will be located in the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone, designed to be Vietnam’s first petrochemical refinery complex. The provincial government is preparing 2,000 hectares of land to make room for construction of the complex, which is to be developed in two phases.

Work on the project is expected to commence in early 2017 with plans to commission the complex in 2022.

Chairman of the Binh Dinh People’s Committee Ho Quoc Dung was quoted by Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper as saying that PTT and its partner Saudi Aramco sent their new plan to change the project scale and lower planned capacity and reschedule project construction.

After numerous adjustments, in September 2014, the provincial People’s Committee, PTT and Saudi Aramco submitted a specific report on the project to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for appraisal and submitted it to the government for approval.

In 2014, the Government gave the nod to the implementation of the complex and agreed to add it to the master plan for development of the oil and gas industry in Vietnam.-VNA