Vietnam Oil & Gas Group (PetroVietnam) affiliate Binh Son Refining & Petrochemical JSC (BSR)—formerly Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co. Ltd.—has let a contract to John Wood Group PLC to deliver services for the potential expansion of clean fuels production at the operator’s 6.5-million tonne/year (tpy) refinery in the Dung Quat Economic Zone of Binh Tri Commune in Binh Son District, Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam.

As part of the contract, Wood will deliver front-end engineering and design (FEED) for a project to upgrade and expand unidentified installations at the refinery to increase throughput and ensure production of fuels complying with Euro 5-quality specifications, the service provider said.

Wood’s Thailand division will execute the FEED scope for BSR’s Euro 5-compliant fuels project with special support on technology selection, licensing, processing, and advisory from the service provider’s teams in Singapore and Reading, UK.

The Euro 5-fuels project comes as part of BSR’s long-planned upgrading and expansion project (DQRE) at the complex that primarily aims to increase the refinery’s crude processing capacity by 30% to 8.5 million tpy by 2028 (OGJ Online, Nov. 9, 2016; Aug. 31, 2015). 

Once completed, the DQRE also will ultimately reduce BSR’s emissions to help meet environmental regulations and protect air quality, as well as support Vietnam’s long-term strategy of becoming fully self-sufficient in industrial and transport fuels by reducing fuel imports and ensuring the country’s future security of supply, Wood said.

The service provider did not reveal further details regarding the FEED award.

This latest contract for the DQRE follows BSR’s October 2024 award to Maire SPA subsidiary NextChem SPA’s KT-Kinetics Technology SPA for technology licensing and processing design of a new hydrogen production unit (HPU) to be installed at Dung Quat (OGJ Online, Oct. 11, 2024).

DQRE progress

In a Nov. 2 release, BSR said it has continued to gradually implement initiatives under the broader DQRE project, including works to optimize and expand both processing and production capacities of the complex’s existing installations.

In 2024, the refiner said it has operated most of the site’s units above their nameplate capacities, specifically on selected units as follows:

• Crude distillation unit: 116% above its 148,000 b/d design capacity.
• Naphtha hydrotreating unit: 137% above its 23,500 b/d design capacity.
• Continuous catalytic reforming unit: 112% above its 21,100 b/d design capacity.
• Light naphtha isomerization unit: 150% above its 6,500 b/d design capacity.
• Kerosine treating unit: 140% above its 10,000 b/d design capacity.
• RFCC unit: 110% above its 69,700 b/d design capacity.