Vietnam’s largest refinery to shut for 55 days from Aug 25 for maintenance

VIETNAM’S largest refinery, Nghi Son, will be shut down for 55 days starting Aug 25 for major maintenance, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said on Thursday (Jan 12).

The 200,000-barrel-per-day refinery will process 7.96 million tonnes of crude oil this year, the ministry said in a statement.

This will be the first major maintenance at the refinery, which started commercial production in May, 2018. The refinery supplies more than a third of Vietnam’s needs for refined fuels.

Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical suffered a leak at its residual fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC), which had been shut down since late last month.

The ministry said the unit will be restarted on Jan 15 at the latest. The closure of the unit causes a 20 per cent-25 per cent fall in the refinery’s total output.

Nghi Son refinery is 35.1 per cent owned by Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan Co, 35.1 per cent by Kuwait Petroleum, 25.1 per cent by Vietnam’s state oil firm PetroVietnam and 4.7 per cent by Mitsui Chemicals .

Vietnam’s other refinery, the 130,000-barrel-per-day Binh Son, will also be shut down from Jun 22 through to August 11 for maintenance. REUTERS