PVOIL approves $600 mln crude supply plan for Nghi Son refinery

PVOIL, a subsidiary of state-owned Petrovietnam, has approved transactions worth an estimated $600 million to supply crude oil to the Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical complex during the second half of 2026, as the country’s largest refinery broadens its feedstock sources beyond its traditional Kuwaiti supply.

PVOIL’s board last month approved contracts between the company and its subsidiary, PetroVietnam Oil Supply and Trading (PVOSN), to supply crude to Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical (NSRP), located in Vietnam’s central province of Thanh Hoa.

Under the plan, PVOIL and PVOSN will form a consortium to supply crude oil to the refinery and sign purchase agreements with international suppliers to secure feedstock. The transactions will be carried out between July and December 2026.

The move comes as Nghi Son expands its crude sourcing strategy. The refinery was originally designed to process Kuwait Export Crude (KEC), but it has been gradually increasing its ability to process crude grades from other producing countries.

Earlier this year, Nghi Son successfully processed its first cargo of Das Blend crude from the United Arab Emirates, totaling nearly one million barrels.

The refinery plans to process an additional 10 million to 12 million barrels of non-Kuwaiti crude annually in the coming years, blending the volumes with Kuwaiti crude or other grades with similar characteristics, the company stated.

The broader sourcing strategy is expected to increase the refinery’s need to procure crude from a wider range of international suppliers, creating a larger role for PVOIL and PVOSN in securing feedstock.

Established in 2008, Nghi Son is a joint venture between Petrovietnam, Kuwait Petroleum Europe, Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan, and Mitsui Chemicals, with a total investment of over $9 billion.

The refinery has a designed processing capacity of 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day, equivalent to around 10 million tons annually, and currently supplies about 40% of Vietnam’s domestic refined fuel demand.