Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), the international marketing arm of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), announced on 15 January that it has signed an agreement with its Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Project (NSRP) partners to seek finance for their planned Vietnam joint venture. NSRP partners are KPI (35.1%), Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan (35.1%), Vietnam Oil and Gas (25.1%) and Japan’s Mitsui Chemicals (4.7%). State news agency KUNA said that the Nghi Son refinery would be Vietnam’s second, with capacity to process 200,000 b/d of crude oil, which would be supplied by KPC. The cost of the project would be $9bn, of which $5bn would be sourced from international lenders.
Idemitsu announced on the same day that the NSRP partners have issued a letter of award for an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to a consortium comprising Japan’s JGC and Chiyoda, France’s Technip, and South Korea’s SK and GS. The company said that signing of the EPC contract and the launch of syndication are scheduled for January 2013, financial close and EPC commencement are due in mid-2013, mechanical completion due by end-2016 and commencement of commercial operation scheduled for mid-2017. (CONTINUED - 260 WORDS)
