Start-up of Vietnam's Nghi Son oil refinery delayed to 2018

Start-up of Vietnam's Nghi Son oil refinery delayed to 2018

The commercial start-up of Vietnam's new $7.5 B Nghi Son oil refinery will
be delayed to 2018, from an initial expected start-up in the third quarter
of this year, according to a notice on a government website.

The 200,000 bpd oil refinery is now planning to start commercial operations
in the Q1 2018, according to a notice on the website for Deputy Prime
Minister Vuong Dinh Hue and a source close to the matter.

Trouble with a mechanical test on some of the refinery's components set back
test runs at the plant, causing the delay, according to the notice.

A spokesman for Nghi Son did not immediately reply when contacted by
Reuters.

The start-up delay should defer an expected decline in product margins until
after Nghi Son starts operating, said Nevyn Nah, an oil analyst with
consultancy Energy Aspects.

"The impact on margins will be shifted to mid-2018 if the refinery is
commissioned in first quarter of next year," he said.

Vietnam's imports of oil products were expected to fall after Nghi Son began
operations.

The delay of additional fuel supplies in Asia could be good news for
refiners, a trader with a North Asian refinery said.

Still, it could weigh on the crude oil market, a Singapore-based crude
trader said.

The refinery was expected to take delivery of its first crude oil in May and
send out its first oil products by the third quarter of the year, the
company said in February.

The plant is Vietnam's second refinery and will process Kuwaiti crude oil to
produce liquefied petroleum gases, gasoline, diesel, kerosene and jet fuel,
mainly for the domestic markets.

Kuwait now has less demand for its crude after shutting its 200,000 bpd
Shuaiba refinery in April and this is expected to continue until Nghi Son
starts, four crude traders said.

Nghi Son Refinery sent out requests to shipbrokers earlier this month to
charter 27 very large crude carriers, ships capable of carrying 2 MMbbl of
oil each, over July 2017 to June 2018 to transport crude from Kuwait to the
refinery, according to a tender document seen by Reuters.

Japan's Idemitsu Kosan and Kuwait Petroleum International each own 35.1% of
Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemicals, while PetroVietnam has 25.1% and
Mitsui Chemicals 4.7%.

Vietnam's existing Dung Quat refinery meets about 30 percent of domestic
demand.

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Link to Original Article:
http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2017/05/start-up-of-vietnams-nghi-
son-oil-refinery-delayed-to-2018

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com