Vietnam’s NSRP to restart some units from turnaround on 7-9 October

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Vietnam’s Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical (NSRP) will restart some of its units on 7-9 October following more than a month of turnaround.

The NSRP complex, which is located at the Nghi Son Economic Zone in Thanh Hoa Province in the northcentral coast of Vietnam, has completed 70% of the turnaround as of 18 September, the company said on 20 September.

Its refinery can process up to 200,000 bbl/day of crude oil into refined products.

NSRP resumed on 20 September product deliveries from its inventory reserve of 9,000 cubic metres of gasoline and 75,000 cubic metres of diesel, the company said.

“From 7 to 9 October 2023, some key processing units can be partially restarted. Once the turnaround is complete, the refinery can resume normal operations and continue to provide stable petroleum products to the Vietnamese market,” the company said.

The NSRP complex houses a 400,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) plant, which accounts for about a third of Vietnam’s domestic output of the polymer, according to ICIS data.

The complex produces aromatics – benzene, toluene, paraxylene and mixed xylenes – as well as propylene, which goes into the PP plant at the site.

The whole complex began its 55-day turnaround in late August.

The shutdown of the whole complex is the company’s first major maintenance since starting commercial operations in 2018.

NSRP is a joint venture among Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), Kuwait Petroleum Europe and Japanese petrochemical producers Idemitsu Kosan and Mitsui Chemicals.