Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has said the Dung Quat Oil Refinery laysthe foundation and serves as an important kick-start for the developmentof Vietnam’s petrochemical industry.
He made the statementafter cutting the ribbon to officially inaugurate the country’s firstoil refinery at Binh Son district, the central province of QuangNgai on Jan. 6.
“The Dung Quat refinery’s official operation isimportantly significant to the country’s politics, socio-economicaffairs, and national defence and security during its industrialisationand modernisation course,” PM Dung said.
Emphasising thefacility’s part in ensuring national energy security, he affirmed “theselection of location for the refinery and the construction of the plantare the right investment decisions made by our Party and State.”
ThePM also noted the refinery’s core industrial position in Quang Ngaiprovince and the central region, saying it will enable the fastdevelopment of related services and industries as well as promote theprovincial and regional economic restructuring for an economic balancewith other regions in the country.
As the country’s key work, theDung Quat refinery cost more than 3 billion USD, the highest investmentamount ever pumped by the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group(PetroVietnam), which will also be in charge of managing and operatingthe facility.
Covering 337 ha of land and 471 ha of seawatersurface, the Dung Quat oil refinery is capable of processing 6.5 milliontonnes of crude oil a year into products like liquefied gas (LPG),unleaded petrol, kerosene, air fuel, auto diesel, fuel oil (FO), sulphurand polypropylene.
Turning out its first product at atest run beginning in February, 2009, the refinery had by the end of2010 supplied the market with 7.2 million tonnes of products.
With more than 1,000 technicians, the facility can meet 30 percent of the country’s needs for petroleum products.
Therefinery’s developer, PetroVietnam, and its foreign partners arestudying a possibility to raise the refinery’s yearly capacity to 10million tonnes.
They plan an additional investment of 1billion USD for the capacity expansion scheme, which is expected to becompleted in 2016.
This year, therefinery has set to earn 77 trillion VND in revenues and 550 billion VNDin profit and contribute 15 trillion VND to the state budget./.