Vung Ro Petroleum still dreams about a refinery in Phu Yen

Vung Ro Petroleum still keeps the dream about another refinery project in Phu Yen

Recently, the Phu Yen People’s Committee asked the Phu Yen Economic Zone Management Board in collaboration with the province’s Department of Planning and Investment to consider revoking the Vung Ro project invested by VRP.

The movement started from the investor’s decision to return the investment certificate to the authorities after 10 years of receiving it.

In 2007, VRP was granted the investment certificate for Vung Ro refinery and petrochemical complex with the initial capital of $1.7 billion. After numerous adjustments to the investment plan, the investment capital increased to $3.2 billion with the annual capacity of eight million tonnes of crude oil, doubling the initial capacity.

In 2014, VRP held the ground-breaking ceremony for the refinery. At the time, the investor affirmed to take the first phase of the project into operation in 2016. However, during the past ten years, the construction remained immobile.

According to VRP, the difficulty in site clearance caused the long delay in implementing the construction. However, the real reason was the oil crisis and the economic crisis in Russia in 2015-2016 (Despite being based in the UK, Technostar Management Limited was established by Russian investors).

The revocation of the $3.2 billion Vung Ro has yet to put an end to VRP’s ambitions to develop a refinery project in Phu Yen province.

The firm affirmed that it will develop a project with smaller scale. The construction of the new project will also be divided into numerous phases, with the first phase designed with one million tonne in capacity. At present, the firm has submitted the application for the investment certificate for the new project.

However, the answer whether VRP can realise its dreams remains undecided.