Petrolimex to build refinery in Vietnam's central region

State-owned Vietnam National Petroleum Corp. (Petrolimex) plans to build an oil refinery with annual processing capacity of 10 mm tons of crude oil in the country's central Khanh Hoa province with investment of $ 4.5 bn.
Chairman of Petrolimex's management board Vu Ngoc Hai said the corporation and its foreign partner, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), are planning to survey the project's site to make an initial report to relevant agencies. Crude oil is scheduled to be imported from either Singapore or the Middle East to feed the oil refinery.

Petrolimex has 43 affiliates and 34 branches nationwide apart from three joint ventures with foreign countries and one branch in Singapore. Listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai, Sinopec is China's biggest oil refiner.
Dung Quat, Vietnam's first refinery with an annual processing capacity of 6.5 mm tons of rude oil under construction with investment of $ 2.5 bn in central Quang Ngai province, is scheduled to operate in February 2009.

Construction of the second oil refinery named Nghi Son in northern Thanh Hoa province with initial investment of $ 6.2 bn started in May. It will have refinery capacity of 10 mm tons of crude oil per annum once put into operation in 2013.
Vietnam exported 6.7 mm tons of crude oil worth $ 5.6 bn in the first half of this year, down 12.1 % in volume but up 49 % in value, according to the country's General Statistics Office. Meanwhile, it spent $ 6.8 bn on importing 5.9 mm tons of petroleum products, posting respective year-on-year rises of 68.9 % and 4.4 %.