Vung Ro refinery overcomes site woes

December 19, 2011 | 07:10

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Vung Ro Petroleum, the joint venture between UK’s Technostar Management Limited and Russian Telloil Group, has overcome a major site clearance headache for its $1.7 billion oil refinery.

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Phu Yen People’s Committee last week handed the entire cleared site to the investor for starting construction of the oil refinery in the province. “Finally we have overcome this tough issue. It took longer than we thought,” said a Vung Ro Petroleum source.

“We are happy with this process. Now we can implement our investment commitment here,” he said, adding that the firm would have to find a contractor of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) before being able to start construction. He said it would take about eight months to select such a contractor.

Vung Ro obtained its investment licence in November 2007 with total production capacity at four million tonnes of crude oil and is among five oil refineries approved in Vietnam. The investor also plans to build a seaport closed to the refinery.

The project construction has been delayed many times due to site clearance problems. In a bid to push the progress, the investor stated that it would deposit $7 million to help provincial authorities build resettlement areas and complete site clearance.

Early this year, Vung Ro Petroleum announced that it was in negotiations with a Moscow-based company for selling stakes at the project.

The source declined to reveal whether the negotiation had finished.

By Ngoc Linh

vir.com.vn

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