Vietnam announces consultant contractor for $1.8bn plan to upgrade sole refinery
Vietnam announces consultant contractor for $1.8bn plan to upgrade sole refinery
A joint venture between a Vietnamese company and U.S. firm has been awarded a VND50 billion (US$2.23 million) consultant contract in a multibillion-dollar plan to upgrade and expand Vietnam’s sole operational refinery.
The contract was signed Monday by Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Company Ltd. (BSR), the operator of the Dung Quat Refinery, and Quad Personnel Consultants – a consortium formed by Quad Consulting Inc. and Vietnam’s Giac Thanh Co. Ltd.
BSR is a subsidiary of state-owned Vietnam National Oil & Gas Group (PetroVietnam).
According to the contract, the joint venture will oversee and supply consulting services to the front-end engineering design (FEED) phase of the $1.8 billion plan to expand and upgrade Dung Quat.
Texas-based Quad Consulting Inc. will receive more than $1.6 million out of the $2.23 million contract, while the remaining will come to Giac Thanh.
BSR announced late last month it had selected UK-based Amec Foster Wheeler as the FEED contractor for the project.
The Dung Quat Refinery operator said on Monday the FEED and project consultant contracts will be implemented simultaneously.
The two-year FEED contract, the value of which has not been disclosed, includes the optimization of the refinery’s configuration, the coordination of licensors, and the design for new units as well as the revamp of existing facilities, according to Amec Foster Wheeler.
This also includes the establishment of the optimum definition to allow the project to be implemented at the lowest cost, while increasing the stable supply of petroleum products in accordance with the Euro 5 standard.
Vietnamese newswire VnExpress said without citing sources that the contract between BSR and Amec Foster Wheeler, which is also the designer of the original refinery in 2000, is worth more than $25 million.
The Dung Quat oil refinery, the only such facility operational in the country, is located in the central province of Quang Ngai.
The $1.8 billion expansion and upgrade plan, as approved by the government, is intended to increase the plant’s annual processing capacity by 30 percent.
Dung Quat is currently only capable of treating crude oil exploited from the Bach Ho field in the East Vietnam Sea at an annual capacity of 6.5 million tons a year.
The refinery is expected to be able to process other common kinds of oil in the world following the expansion, while its capacity is projected to rise to 8.5 million tons a year.
The 78-month project will be completed in 2021.
