Work on Vietnam's first ever refinery to start in november
HANOI - Construction work on Vietnam's first ever oil refinery at Dung Quat, in the country's central region, will begin in November, a member of the project's management board said Tuesday.
The French group Technip, the leader of an international consortium which won the contract for the project in May, is beginning to design the refinery, said board member Dang Hong Son.
The whole project, which requires the building of a vast infrastructure, including a port, is expected to cost 2.5 billion dollars, according to industry estimates.
Technip, Japanese engineering giant JGC Corporation and Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas signed the contract with state-owned giant PetroVietnam in May.
The long-awaited deal is seen as crucial in giving Vietnam energy autonomy, as, despite being a major crude producer, the communist nation has to import all its refined products because it has no refineries.
The controversial project had long been a non-starter, swallowing up millions of dollars in studies over the past decade.
Technip is working with contractors from France, Japan, Spain and Malaysia and has ordered surveys and equipment supplies, Son said.
The project management board is recruiting about 600 engineers and 300 other cadres and technical workers, he added.
Dung Quat, 120 kilometres (75 miles) away from Danang, a central port city, was picked as the site mainly because of the Vietnamese leadership's desire to develop an industrial counterweight in the centre between the two existing poles, Hanoi in the north and Ho Chi Minh City in the south.
The complex is expected to have an annual capacity of 6.5 million tonnes and become operational in 2009.
Vietnam produced 20.1 million tonnes of crude in 2004, or 13.3 percent more than in the previous year.
Agence France Presse - September 13, 2005.
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