Vietnam’s petrochemical oil refinery projects gear up Vietnam has been gradually proceeding towards a petrochemical industry comprising of all phases of a production line. Despite the comments about the low profitability of oil refinery projects, Vietnam vows to develop the petrochemical industry. Ignoring the doubts about the financial capability to implement projects, foreign investors have been flocking to Vietnam to develop oil refineries.   Nghi Son turns closer to reality The contract on the establishment of a joint venture to develop the Nghi Son oil refinery project was signed in 2008. However, the partners in the project, including Vietnamese PetroVietnam, Kuwaiti KPI, Japanese Idemitsu and Mitsui, had to wait five more years to start the construction of the main factory. If noting that it took the involved parties two years to conduct negotiations and it will take four years to build the refinery, the investors would need 10 years to turn a project into reality. The fame of the partners in the joint venture can serve as the guarantee for them to mobilize capital for the $9 billion project. By June 2013, the $5 billion worth of loans had been arranged. This includes the $2.3 billion from Japanese JBIC and South Korean Kexim, and the $2.7 billion from commercial loans guaranteed by Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI). In July 2013, an EPC contract was signed with the group of contractors headed by Japanese JGC Corporation. As the preparatory works have been done, the most important work for the investors now is to ensure the planned construction pace of the factory Dung Quat looks for new partners The only operational oil refinery has completed the feasibility study on enlarging the refinery to increase the production capacity from 6.5 million tons of crude oil now to 10 million tons per annum. PetroVietnam, the investor of the project, is seeking a partner for the expansion project. Sources have said it could be Russian Gazprom Neft. The Russian leading oil and gas group now owns 70 licenses for exploiting oil and five refineries with the capacity of 40 million tons. The sources have said that the involved parties have been gearing up in the preparatory steps to be able to sign a cooperation contract by 2014. Dung Quat was designed to use the crude oil from the White Tiger oil field, but the expanded Dung Quat would use crude oil from different sources. Therefore, the cooperation of Gazprom Neft which has great advantages in oil supply would help stabilize the crude oil supply for Dung Quat. Vung Ro speeds up An amended investment license was granted to the investor of the Vung Ro petrochemical oil refinery project on October 6. The ceremony of the signing of FEED (front end engineering design) and the EPC letter of award (LOA) also took place on the same day. Located in the Hoa Tam Industrial Zone in Nam Phu Yen Economic Zone, the project with the initially designed capacity of 4 million tons and investment capital of $1.7 billion was licensed in 2007. However, the investor – British Technostar Management Ltd – later decided to build a 8 million ton per annum refinery with the capital of $3.18 billion. The Phu Yen provincial authorities hope the project would start this November. Nhon Hoi has kicked off In mid-August 2013, Thai PTT Group, joining forces with the Binh Dinh provincial authorities, held a press conference to announce the start of the planning of the Nhon Hoi petrochemical complex project. Source: Doanh Nhan