Vietnam shuts down 135,000 bpd oil refinery

Vietnam unexpectedly shut its only refinery over the weekend and has offered to sell its Bach Ho crude oil, while Vietnamese importers are seeking nearly 840,000 barrels of gasoil and gasoline to plug the supply shortfall, traders said on Monday. The country’s 135,000 barrels-per-day Dung Quat refinery could be shut for about 14 days in its second outage in less than three months, traders said.  Dung Quat officials could not be reached for comment on the reason for the outage, its likely duration or other details. The extra prompt crude supply freed by the refinery outage could weigh on an already weak market for sweet grades in Asiam whereas Vietnam’s sudden demand for oil products could buoy spot premiums as regional supply has tightened recently due to  several refineries undergoing maintenance work or other outages. State-owned PV Oil has offered the prompt crude supply for September delivery in a tender that will close on Aug.7 with bids valid until a day later. This is the second Bach Ho tender invitation from PV Oil in less than a week after PV Oil sold 700,000 barrels of crude for September loading last week. “The refinery is having trouble so they have to chuck out what they can,” a crude trader said. From:Gulftoday