PetroVietnam to develop $19-billion refinery and petrochemical complex

The construction will be divided into two periods. According to PetroVietnam, the group forecasts to complete the dossiers to submit to the government for approving the investment planning in January 2023.

The schedule to establish the feasibility report for the complex will last from June to December 2023. The investment decision is expected to be approved in the first quarter of 2024. After that, the group will select the engineering, procurement, and construction contractors, and construction is expected to finish in December 2027.

The refinery and petrochemical complex is expected to reduce the burden of dependence on imported petroleum and oil. PetroVietnam calculated that the demand for petroleum and oil in the domestic market will reach 25 million tonnes by 2025, which will increase to 33 million tonnes by 2030.

Meanwhile, the current domestic supply of petroleum, including from Dung Quat Refinery and Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical (NSRP) is estimated at 12.2 million tonnes and is expected to increase to about 13.5 million tonnes after expanding Dung Quat Oil Refinery.

Thus, the current domestic production capacity can only meet about 70 percent of the demand for petroleum products, a figure that is expected to drop by 40 percent in 2030 and 20 percent in 2045.

Vietnam currently has one petrochemical plant and one oil refinery in operation. The first one is Dung Quat Oil Refinery, which operates stably with an annual capacity of 5.8 million tonnes of petroleum.

The second is the NSRP, which started operation in 2018 with an annual capacity of 6.5 million tonnes of gasoline.

Long Son Petrochemical Complex, which is fully invested by SCG Group, completed construction to over 96 percent. Hyosung's petrochemical plant is expected to be put into operation in 2022 or 2023.

Source: VIR