A New Crude Oil Refinery for Vietnam
Haiphong, Socialist Republic of Vietnam - The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is one of the upcoming countries in Southeast Asia with an economic growth of approximately 10% per year, covering a similar area to Germany and with 82 million inhabitants.
Until recently Vietnam was known as a major exporter of agricultural products (Inter Alia Vietnam is the 2nd largest coffee exporter in the world) and for its light industry, especially shoe production. There is currently no heavy industry or petrochemical processing in Vietnam. Vietnam possesses enormous crude oil deposits and resources which are exploited primarily offshore. Due to the existing refinery capacities the produced crude oil is entirely exported and the refined oil products such as fuel are entirely imported.
Currently the largest state-run oil company, Petrovietnam, produces 7m tons of crude oil each year. This refinery is not able to provide enough oil demand going forward to match the current and anticipated demand in Vietnam.
HPC has been instructed, together with the project developer Evagor GmbH from Leipzig, to support the planning of a new refinery, with a capacity of approximately 5 million tons of crude oil processing, in the industrial and port city Haiphong, Northern Vietnam.
The investor for this refinery is a private Vietnamese company listed on the Vietnamese stock exchange. Due to the international financial crisis the Vietnamese Investor is looking for a co-Investor from the Western oil and gas Industry. This project will be financed by The Saxon State Bank and its parent company, The State Bank of Baden-Wurttemberg with a guarantee of the Vietnamese state and an export credit guarantee.
The first draft of the pre-feasibility study, carried out by Evagor and HPC, referred to a relatively simple crude oil processing technology, without "cracker", to reduce the costs of the pre-feasibility study. A cracker is refinery equipment that "cracks" long-chain hydrocarbons of the crude oil.
Approximately US $2.8-3.0 bn is being invested into this project and it is proving to be one of the most interesting and challenging projects HPC has undertaken. As well as the work undertaken during the pre-feasibility study stage, HPC hopes to contribute its experience, skill and knowledge in other elements of the project including environmental impact assessments, infra-structure planning, geotechnical assessment, supervision and project management. With support from the Inogen Partner in Southeast Asia, HPC can guarantee that the professional aspect of such a project is complied with and considered as well as the local conditions.
For further information please contact Thomas Noack at HPC at tnoack@hpc-ag.de