Vietnam selects UK design contractor for Dung Quat Refinery’s $1.8bn expansion plan

Amec Foster Wheeler has been awarded the FEED contract by Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Company Ltd (BSR), a subsidiary of state-owned Vietnam National Oil & Gas Group (PetroVietnam), the Knutsford, Cheshire-based firm announced on Friday.

Dung Quat oil refinery, the only such facility operational in the country, is located in the central province of Quang Ngai.

The FEED contract is part of the $1.8 billion expansion and upgrading plan which is planned to increase the plant’s annual processing capacity by 30 percent.

The two-year contract, the value of which has not been announced, includes optimization of the refinery configuration, coordination of licensors, and the design for new units as well as the revamp of existing units, according to Amec Foster Wheeler.

This includes establishing the optimum project definition to allow the project to be implemented at the lowest cost, while increasing the stable supply of petroleum products in accordance with the Euro 5 standard.

Amec Foster Wheeler will also support BSR’s contracting activities ready for the next phase of the project.

Vietnamese newswire VnExpress said without citing sources that the contract between BSR and Amec Foster Wheeler is worth more than $25 million.

“This contract award affirms our world leading refinery capability, and I am delighted we are using our global expertise to support BSR in the development of Dung Quat,” Roberto Penno, Amec Foster Wheeler’s group president for Asia, Middle East, Africa & Southern Europe, said in a statement.

Amec Foster Wheeler completed the design for the original refinery in 2000, according to Penno.

Dung Quat is currently only capable of treating crude oil exploited from Bach Ho field in the East Vietnam Sea at an annual capacity of 6.5 million tons a year.

The facility is expected to be able to process other common kinds of oil in the world following the expansion, while its capacity is expected to rise to 8.5 million tons a year.

Amec Foster Wheeler designs, delivers and maintains strategic and complex assets for customers across the global energy and related sectors, according to the company’s website.

With pro-forma 2014 annualized scope revenues of £5.5 billion ($8.46 billion) and over 40,000 people in more than 55 countries, the company operates across the whole of the oil and gas industry – from production through to refining, processing and distribution of derivative products – and in the mining, clean energy, power generation, pharma, environment and infrastructure markets.