Dung Quất Refinery

Dung Quất refinery is an oil refinery in Quảng Ngãi Province, Vietnam. It is the first oil refinery in Vietnam.

History

The refinery project started already in 1980s. The refinery was planned to be construct near the port of Vũng Tàu, just 100 kilometres (60 mi) away from the offshore oil fields. In 1988, the clearance of the construction site from unexploded wartime ordnance was started. However, in 1991 the refinery project was shelved. In the early 1990s, Total S.A. expressed interest to the project. At the same time the Vietnamese government suggested to move the site to Van Phong bay, north of Nha Trang, and later further north to Dung Quat. Followed this, in 1995 Total SA pulled out, claiming that the new site made no economic sense. Total was replaced with a consortium of foreign investors, including LG Group and Petronas, but also this consortium withdraw two years later.

In 1998, establishment of VietRoss, a joint venture of Vietnam and Russia, was decided. The intergovernmental agreement on the construction and operation of the refinery was signed on 25 August 1998. The Front End Engineering Design (FEED) Contract was signed between Petrovietnam, Zarubezhneft and Foster Wheeler Energy. The Dung Quat Refinery was originally scheduled to start work in 2000, but the process was several times delayed. On 25 December 2002, the intergovernmental agreement between Vietnam and Russia was terminated, and the project continued as a solo project of Petrovietnam.