Nghi Son refinery must fix technical issues, resume full capacity by Sunday: minister

Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Complex must fix its technical issues and resume full capacity by Sunday, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien made the request while working with the complex on Thursday.

Le Nguyen Quoc Vinh, deputy general director and representative of Petrovietnam at Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical LLC (NSRP), said the plant has started repairs on January 4, completed 94% of tasks on Thursday, and is expected to resume operations by Saturday.

He added the facility would operate at 105-107% of its capacity to offset the decreased output.

Earlier this month, the complex in the central province of Thanh Hoa reported its output had reduced by 20-25% in the first 10 days of January due to technical issues along its residue fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) section. As a result, the January output could only reach 600,000 cubic meters of products, versus 620,000 and 770,000 cubic meters in February and March, respectively, NSRP reported.

Vinh stressed the factory had initially detected faulty signs in April-June 2022, however, it had opted not to conduct repairs at the time and instead wait for the regular maintenance in 2023. As more faulty signs were detected on December 25 last year, the plant stopped part of its operations on December 28 to prepare for repair work.

At the working session, Minister Dien also requested the oil refinery to maximize its capacity and stockpiles, prior to regular maintenance this year, in order to ensure fuel supply for the economy.

The 55-day regular maintenence, which is scheduled to begin on August 25, is set to decrease the plant's output to 79.6%, equivalent to 7.96 million tons of products. NSRP also reported that the plant's daily output is 5,000 cubic meters of gasoline and 12,000 cubic meters of diesel, or 17,000 cubic meters in total.

Besides, the minister asked Nghi Son and Dung Quat oil refineries, the only two in Vietnam, to maximize their performances, in a move to offset any reduction in output during maintenance. Additionally, he asked major petroleum distributors to proactively find altenative sources to offset the reduced supply of Nghi Son refinery.

Nghi Son is a $9 billion refinery co-owned by Petrovietnam, Kuwait Petroleum Europe B.V. (KPE), and Japan’s Mitsui Chemical and Idemitsu Kosan Co. Dung Quat Refinery is a Petrovietnam subsidiary and has received more than $3 billion in investments.