MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vietnam’s Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical will import 2 million to 3 million barrels of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude in the second half of this year for its Dung Quat refinery, reported Reuters with reference to a company executive's statement.
This will follow the import of the first ever batch of 1 million barrels of WTI crude oil in the first half of this year, Vice Chief Executive Officer Nguyen Van Hoi told Reuters.
Vietnam is seeking to import more goods from the United States to help narrow a favorable trade surplus following threats by US President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on products from the Southeast Asian nation amid a Sino-US trade war.
"Other than WTI crude, we will continue using Vietnam’s Bach Ho crude and imported crude oil from other sources in Asia for the refinery," Hoi said by telephone.
Vietnam has been relying more on imported crude due to a slowdown in domestic output as reserves decline at existing fields and China’s increasingly assertive stance in the region hampers offshore exploration.
Binh Son will shut down the refinery, which can process 130,000 barrels per day of crude oil, for 51 days starting from early June next year for a major maintenance, Hoi said.
This will be the fourth time the refinery in the central province of Quang Ngai has undergone major maintenance since it began commercial production 10 years ago.
The refinery operated at 106% of its design capacity in the first half of this year, producing 3.38 million tonnes of refined products, the company said.
Vietnam’s trade surplus with the United States widened to USD20.59 billion in the first half of this year from USD15.55 billion a year earlier, according to Vietnam’s official customs data.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade and the US Department of Energy will soon sign a memorandum of understanding on LNG imports, the government said in a statement late last month.
As MRC informed before, Vietnam's Dung Quat oil refinery planned to sell a 5%–6% stake in the company in the fourth quarter of 2017 via an initial public offering (IPO). The IPO was part of a government plan to sell state-owned enterprises including Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co, which runs USD3 B Dung Quat. At that time, it was the sole refinery operating in the country.
MRC