Mitsui Chemicals : Vietnam's Nghi Son refinery restarting, to be fully operational December 12 - source

Vietnam's $9-billion Nghi Son refinery will restart on Thursday after a shutdown late in October for major maintenance work, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Vietnam's second oil refinery, Nghi Son started commercial operations in late 2018.

"We have basically completed the maintenance work, and we have been restarting the refinery, unit by unit," the source, who asked not to be identified, said on Friday.

"The refinery is scheduled to be fully operational by Dec. 12."

The 200,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery, located 260 km (160 miles) south of Hanoi, is 35.1% owned by Japan's Idemitsu Kosan Co, 35.1% by Kuwait Petroleum, 25.1% by PetroVietnam and 4.7% by Mitsui Chemicals Inc.

Both Nghi Son and the 130,000-bpd Dung Quat refinery, which started production in 2009, meet about 70% of Vietnam's demand for refined oil products.

By Khanh Vu