Vietnam starts to build 1st oil refinery
HANOI - The construction of Vietnam's first oil refinery officially began in central Quang Ngai province on Monday morning.
The Dung Quat refinery with an annual refining capacity of 6.5 million tons of crude oil is of significant in ensuring energy for Vietnam, which is a crude oil exporter, but petroleum product importer, said Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the groundbreaking ceremony.
The refinery with an estimated cost of 2.5 billion US dollars, is expected to become operational in late 2008 or early 2009. Once completed, it will provide such products as Mogas 90 gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel oil, and propylene, meeting one-third of the local demand for petroleum products.
In May, the state-owned Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation signed the construction contract with a consortium led by France's Technip Conflexip.
Vietnam exported nearly 15 million tons of crude oil valued at over 6.2 billion dollars in the first 10 months of this year, down 7.2 percent in volume but up 33.5 percent in value against the same period last year.
Meanwhile, it imported over 9.6 million tons of petroleum products worth roughly 4.2 billion dollars, posting respective rises of 4.7 percent and 43.1 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office.
Xinhuanet - November 28, 2005.
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