Vietnam opens $3 billion oil refinery

DUNG QUAT, Vietnam (Reuters) – Vietnam opened its maiden oil refinery on Sunday, a project that has been dogged by delays, failed joint ventures and criticism of its location, but which ends the country’s total reliance on imported fuel.

The 140,000-barrels per day (bpd) Dung Quat plant, flanked by rice paddies and situated on a sandy stretch of coast almost exactly halfway between the capital Hanoi and commercial hub Ho Chi Minh City, will eventually allow Asia’s second-biggest autofuel buyer to cut imports by a third.

A one hour and 20 minute ceremony was broadcast live on primetime state TV, underscoring the importance attached to Vietnam’s biggest economic project ever, 15 years in the making.

The refinery “is a symbol of socialism in Vietnam’s ‘doi moi’ reform era,” said Tran Ngoc Canh, CEO of Petrovietnam.

Dung Quat was conceived in 1994 so that Vietnam could put its domestically produced crude oil to use at home instead of selling it to foreign refiners, only to import fuel at high prices.

Reuters