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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The commercial start-up
of Vietnam's new USD7.5 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., said Reuters.
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. |
