Vietinbank provides 200mln USD loan for oil refinery

Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) and the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) signed a credit contract of 200 million USD on April 3 for the Dung Quat Oil Refinery project.

The contract is part of PetroVietnam's long-term capital arrangement plan for the
2009-2013 period, said the group's Chairman Dinh La Thang, adding that many
similar or larger credit contracts are planned for 2009 and future years.

Among the total investment capital of 3 billion USD for the Dung Quat project, the
Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) provided 1 billion USD in
preferential loans and several commercial banks came up with an additional 250
million USD through the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank).

After four years of construction, the Quang Ngai-based oil refinery turned out its
first batch of distilled oil in February and will hit its full capacity of 6.5
million tonnes in August this year.

This year, the plant is expected to turn out 2.6 million tonnes of a variety of
petrol products, meeting around 30 percent of domestic demand.

At a press conference on the same day, Thang announced that PetroVietnam plans to
sell a maximum of 49 percent of the Dung Quat refinery to strategic partners in
mid-2010.- Enditem