Vietnam will license $22bn refinery in early 2015

HANOI: Vietnam will grant a licence for a $22 billion refinery and petrochemical complex by Thai top energy company PTT Pcl and Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil producer no later than February 2015, a Vietnamese government official said on Monday.

PTT and Aramco will each fund 50 percent of the project, should the firms fail to find any Vietnamese counterpart, said Man Ngoc Ly, head of the Nhon Hoi economic zone in the central province of Vietnam, where the project will be developed.

Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved the project, which is designed to refine 20 million tonnes of crude oil annually, or 400,000 barrels per day, the government said in a report on its website late last week.