Largest oil refinery scales down production due to technical breakdown
VOV.VN - Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical LLC (NSRP), the largest oil refinery in Vietnam, will have to downsize production due to technical breakdown, leading to a lack of 120,000m3 of petroleum for domestic use.
NSRP has shut a residual fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) unit for troubleshooting, and estimated petroleum output in the first 10 days of January will be 20-25% lower than the plan, equivalent to about 125,000m3, NSRP said in a statement.
NSRP will compensate for the shortfall before the Lunar New Year festival (Tet) to meet the local demand for petrol and oil during the New Year break, the company said.
In January 2023 NSRP is expected to produce and supply to the market 600,000m3 of petroleum, of which more than one third is petrol.
The Tet festival is scheduled to fall in late January, and people will have seven days off work during the break to visit their families and friends, and to travel.
The refinery is making every effort to fix the problem so that RFCC can resume operation as soon as possible, said a representative of NSRP.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade confirmed that it was closely monitoring the situation.
The refinery is expected to resume operation in mid-January and will increase production to compensate for the shortfall from now until the Lunar New Year,"said a representative of the ministry.
The refinery is 35.1% owned by Japan's Idemitsu Kosan Co, 35.1% by Kuwait Petroleum, 25.1% by Vietnam's state oil firm PetroVietnam and 4.7% by Mitsui Chemicals Inc.
Vietnam consumes about 1.6-1.8 million m3 of petrol and oil of all kinds every month, with 40% of the total supplied by the Nghi Son Refinery.