Can Tho refinery reaches end game

July 09, 2012 | 09:44

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Can Tho Municipal People’s Council said the eight year delay had made local people’s lives unstable and hurt the province’s investment image.

The long-delayed Can Tho oil refinery is set for the bullet. Can Tho Municipal People’s Council said the eight year delay had made local people’s lives unstable and hurt the province’s investment image.

Vien Dong logded an application to develop Can Tho refinery in 2004 and in May 2008, the investor received an investment certificate to build a $538 million refinery on 250 hectares in Phuoc Thoi ward, O Mon district with the annual capacity of two millions tonnes of crude oil. A joint venture between Vien Dong and US’ Semtech Limited was formed, of which Vien Dong contributed 30 per cent of the capital investment.

However, the foreign partner withdrew from the project in 2009, due to financial difficulties and Vien Dong proposed to reduce the project’s financial scale to $350 million on 50ha.

In June 2010 Nguyen Van Duc, general manager of the Vien Dong, announced that he had chosen the Taiwan’s Crystal Future Incorporation to replace the US one. However, in October 2010 Crystal Future Incorporation announced its withdrawal from the project, claiming that it wanted to be given cleared land by the local authorities before joining the project, meanwhile the local authorities asked the two sides to set up new joint venture first.

Duc even presented a letter of confirmation of the Far East National Bank Ho Chi Minh City Branch to express its interest in providing Vien Dong the financial support with an amount up to $150 million, to be used for the first phase of the project. The letter expired in July 7, 2011.