|
PetroVietnam may buy Middle East crude oil for third refinery
Vietnam Oil & Gas Group, also known as PetroVietnam, plans to buy crude oil from the Middle East to supply the country’s planned third refinery.
PetroVietnam, based in Hanoi, initially planned to use crude from Venezuela for the Long Son plant, Chairman Dinh La Thang said in an interview Friday.
“We decided to change our plan since it’ll cost us more to transport crude from Venezuela than from the Middle East,” he said.
The state-owned oil producer expects to sign contracts with “some foreign companies by the end of this year” to form a venture to build and to get crude supply for the Long Son plant, Thang said, declining to identify the companies. The refinery, which will cost about US$8 billion, is scheduled to be operational in 2015, he said.
Petroleos de Venezuela SA has pulled out as a joint-venture partner with PetroVietnam in Long Son project due to “some issues including crude oil supply,” Thang said.
PetroVietnam is accelerating talks with potential partners including Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd., Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co. and Trafigura Pte after Venezuela’s exit, Lao Dong newspaper reported last week, citing Phung Dinh Thuc, chief executive officer of PetroVietnam.
In February, Vietnam started production at its first refinery of Dung Quat, which is expected to meet a third of the nation’s fuel demand next year, and is building its second oil-processing plant in the northern Thanh Hoa province. The nation, the fourth-biggest crude oil producer in Southeast Asia, currently imports almost all of its annual fuel demand.
PetroVietnam is planning an overseas bond sale next year to raise money for its projects, Thang said, without providing details. The company may sell at least $1 billion of bonds, Nguyen Ngoc Su, deputy chief executive officer, said in June.
thanhnien, bloomberg
|
