BP, Azerbaijan oil giant sell crude to Dung Quat
QUANG NGAI —The PetroVietnam Group has signed agreements with two foreign companies to supply crude oil to Dung Quat oil refinery – the country's first. The agreements were signed with British oil giant BP and State oil company of Azerbaijan SOCAR, said Nguyen Hoai Giang, director general of the Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co Ltd, which operates Dung Quat.
Under the plan, SOCAR will supply 65,000cu.m of crude oil to Dung Quat from mid-August. PetroVietnam Transportation Corporation (PVTRANS) will co-operate with SOCAR on transportation the first barrels of crude oil by ship from the Azeirilight Oil-field, in Azerbaijan, to Viet Thanh Bay in central Quang Ngai Province.
BP will supply Dung Quat with another 65,000 cu.m of crude oil from the Miri Oil-field in Malaysia in late August.
Recently, BP announced it planned to sell upstream assets in Viet Nam to raise funds for its clean-up operation in the US Gulf.
Upstream assets include the Lan Tay and Lan Do gas fields and facilities, the Nam Con Son Gas Pipeline, the Dinh Co Terminal and the Phu My 3 Power Plant.
"The plan does not affect BP's other businesses in the country such as the supply of crude oil to Dung Quat refinery and its lubricant business Castrol BP Petco," BP said.
Since the refinery officially began operating in February 2009, it has received 5 million tonnes of crude oil and churned out 4.2 million tonnes of refined products, Giang said.
Dung Quat has a total investment capital of US$3 billion and a designed capacity of 6.5 million tonnes a year. — VNS