Le Nguyen Vien said on Friday that Vietnam’s Nghi Son refinery, with capacity of 200,000 barrels per day, is relying on Kuwaiti crude to meet its needs through the end of November, with imports from Kuwait accounting for 75% of its new shipments after it diversified its supply sources following disruptions in March and April due to the war in Iran.
Diversifying crude sources and raising output
The refinery was originally designed to process only Kuwaiti crude, but it is now capable of processing 10 types of crude oil. It attempted to process U.S. crude, but Vien said it was too light, prompting the refinery to stop importing it.
We have been operating at 125% of design capacity since July to meet domestic fuel demand
Jet fuel and maintenance plan
Vien said Nghi Son refinery and PetroVietnam Refining and Petrochemical Corporation are capable of meeting Vietnam’s jet fuel demand in full. He added that Chinese refineries’ suspension of petroleum product exports in October would not affect Vietnam’s aviation sector.
Another refinery official said on Friday that the facility will shut down for about 50 days for routine maintenance starting in August next year, as part of a comprehensive overhaul conducted every four years. He added that Nghi Son is in the process of selecting a contractor to carry out the work.
Kazutaka Yamato, Nghi Son’s general director, said the refinery was ready to work with the government to expand oil reserve storage capacity, which currently amounts to only about 20 days.
Expected supplies and ownership structure
Nghi Son expects to supply 2.69 million tonnes of petroleum products to the domestic market in the fourth quarter of this year, bringing its total product supplies in 2026 to more than 9.2 million tonnes.
Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation each hold a 35.1% stake in Nghi Son refinery, while PetroVietnam owns 25.1% and Mitsui Chemicals holds 4.7%.
Vietnam’s crude oil imports decline
Vietnam’s crude imports fell 10.8% in the first eight months of the year from a year earlier to 8.31 million tonnes. Oil shipments from Kuwait accounted for 80% of Vietnam’s total crude imports last year, which exceeded 14 million tonnes.
Shipments from Kuwait totaled only about 2.8 million tonnes in the first eight months of 2026, down 64% from the previous year. Imports of Kuwaiti crude fell to zero from April through July this year, while Vietnam increased imports from other markets, including Oman, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Iraq, Angola and the Republic of the Congo.
