Vietnam’s largest refinery resumes normal operation

The refinery in the central province of Thanh Hoa shut down its residue fluid catalytic cracking system due to fluid leakages in late December 2022, cutting planned production in January by nearly 200,000 cubic meters.

The refinery will increase production in the second half of January and the following months to offset the output shrunken by the technical glitch.

Le Quoc Vinh, Deputy General Director of Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Company which runs the refinery, pledged it will ensure sufficient supply of gasoline and oil products for the market during Tet (Lunar New Year holiday). Tet 2023 falls in late January.

Nghi Son meets around 40% of Vietnam’s monthly fuel demand of 1.6-1.8 million cubic meters.

Last year the oil refinery also had to reduce production due to lack of money.

Specifically, the refinery operated at nearly 88% of its capacity, equivalent to processing 8.9 million tons of crude oil, and supplied to the market 7.4 million tons of various products.

This year the refinery is scheduled to operate at nearly 80% of its capacity due to nearly 2 months of overall maintenance, equivalent to processing about 7.96 million tons of crude oil.

Nghi Son, built in 2018, has a capacity of 10 million tons of crude oil a year, double that of Dung Quat.
It is owned by Petrovietnam, Kuwait Petroleum International and Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan and Mitsui Chemicals.