Japan's major oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan Co. announced on Wednesday it has reached a final decision on a joint venture with the state-run Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), PetroVietnam and Mitsui Chemicals Inc. to co-launch a USD nine billion-worth oil refinery in Vietnam.
Construction of Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Complex will commence next month with completion scheduled for 2016, the Tokyo-based firm said in a statement, adding that commercial operations are expected to start in 2017.
KPI and Idemitsu each own a 35.1 percent stake in the joint project, with PetroVietnam and Mitsui Chemicals Inc. putting up 25.1 percent and 4.7 perce nt, respectively.
The joint venture also signed project financing agreements in the aggregate amounts of up to USD 5 billion with public financial institutions and commercial banks, it sad. Of the amount, direct loans from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the Export-Import Bank of Korea total USD 2.3 billion, while loans from commercial banks total USD 2.7 billion, it noted. As USD 5 billion will be raised through project financing, the remaining USD 4 billion will be directly borne by sponsors. Of this amount, Idemitsu will provide invest about USD 1.4 billion, corresponding to its interest percentage in shares.
The 200,000 barrels per day refinery and petrochemical complex will be based in the northern Vietnamese province of Thanh Hoa, some 180 kilometers south of Hanoi. It is Vietnam's second refinery and the first one with foreign investors' participation. KPI's parent company Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) is to supply all the feedstock for the facility.
In January, the joint venture signed the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with an international consortium of Japan's JGC Corp. and Chiyoda Corp., France's Technip, South Korea's GS Engineering and Construction and SK Engineering and Construction for the project.
Source: kuna
