UPDATE 1-Kuwait gives nod to Vietnam refinery investment
By Rania El Gamal
KUWAIT, March 26 (Reuters) - Kuwait's top oil authority has given the green light for the Gulf State to take a stake in a $6 billion joint venture to build a new refinery in Vietnam, an oil official told Reuters on Wednesday.
Kuwait's Supreme Petroleum Council approved the plan in a meeting earlier in the day, the official said.
"That's it, it's final," he told Reuters. "The plant will have capacity of 200,000 barrels per day."
The refinery will use Kuwaiti crude and start operating in mid-2013, he added.
State oil firm Petrovietnam said last month it would grant investors in the Nghi Son refinery plant the right to sell directly to the domestic retail market, which remains closed to foreign companies.
Nghi Son will be Vietnam's second refinery. The country, which relies almost entirely on imports for oil products as it lacks refining capacity, plans to complete its first 130,000 barrels per day Dung Quat refinery by 2009.
Kuwait's foreign energy investment arm Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) will take a 35 percent stake in the new refining plant, the official said.
Petrovietnam will hold 25 percent, while Japan's Idemitsu (5019.T) and another Japanese company would hold the remaining 40 percent, he said.
"They (the partners) need now to establish a joint-venture company... but they can start immediately, it has been approved," said the official.
Kuwait is aiming to secure a long-term market for its oil in Asia through similar refining deals. It is also in talks for plants in India and China.
State oil company Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC) agreed years ago to build a $5 billion 300,000 to 350,000 bpd refinery with China's Sinopec Corp in southern Guangdong province, but the investment has yet to receive final approval from Beijing.
