Vietnam central province to revoke land from terminated oil refinery project

Phu Yen province plans to reclaim 134 hectares of land that had been designated for the Vung Ro oil refinery after the investor terminated the project.

The $3.2 billion project was invested by Vung Ro Petroleum Limited Company, a joint venture between the UK’s Technostar Management and Russia’s Telloil. It featured 538 hectares for on-land facilities and 1,300 hectares for water-surface facilities.

An investment certificate was issued in 2007 and construction was initiated in September 2014 for completion in 2016 and operation in 2019, but little progress was made.

In 2018, Phu Yen’s economic zone authority withdrew its investment certificate after the investor terminated the project, which had an annual designed output of eight million tons of products.

Phu Yen province has assigned authorities in Dong Hoa town to manage the reclaimed land.

In April, Malaysia’s PETMAL Oil Holdings said it was looking to invest in a 500-hectare oil refinery with initial capital of $2 billion in Nam Phu Yen Economic Zone, Phu Yen province. PETMAL Oil chairman and CEO Dato Paduka Affendi made the proposal to Phu Yen Chairman Ta Anh Tuan, adding that the project may take 36 months to complete.

Lauding the proposal, Tuan said it matched the province’s socioeconomic development plan as the Nam Phu Yen Economic Zone is a government priority.

Nghi Son and Dung Quat, the only two operational oil refineries in Vietnam, account for over half of the petroleum supply in the country. The third project is the Long Son Petrochemicals Complex in Ba Ria-Vung Tau. Thailand's The Siam Cement Group (SCG) started construction of the $5.4 billion facility in the fourth quarter of 2018. The project is nearly complete and is ready to churn out its first products this year.

Vietnam’s petroleum output reached 10.73 million tons in the first nine months of this year, up 3.8% year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO). Meanwhile, the country spent $5.98 billion on importing 7.33 million tons in the same period, down 12.3% in value and up 12.3% in volume year-on-year.