Attending the International Conference on Refining and Petrochemical Technology IRPC Vietnam 2017

On April 20-21, 2017, the delegation of Chemical Engineering - Oil and Gas Division (CE-OGD), Faculty of Chemical Engineering, University of Science and Technology- Danang University attended the 3rd Vietnam Oil and Gas Refining Conference 2017 In Hanoi, Vietnam.

Vietnam is becoming an emerging industrial oil production center which is forecast to grow stronger in the coming years. This will motivate investment and cooperation among countries in the Asian region, despite the politic long-term risks associated with land acquisition as well as the complexity of administrative procedures and policies as well as the over-supply of the market compared to the needs of products in the region as well as in the world.

Figure 1: Overview of the IRPC 2017 conference

Now, the capacity of Vietnamese manufacturing and supplying the end products from petroleum, petrochemicals in Vietnam such as various kinds of plastic (PE, PE, PS, PET, PVC, ABS, polyurethane ..), chemicals (methanol , ethylene glycol, dioctyl phthalate, styrene, paraxylene, alkyl benzene, PTA ...) are very limited and depend heavily on imports. With refinery projects in the coming years, Vietnam will significantly increase the productivity, particularly polypropylene and polyethylene. However, site clearance and financial difficulties will delay these projects for many years. In addition, the pressure from the large supply of products from the US and China will reduce the cost of products down in the next or long term.

Figure 2: Exxon-Mobil Exhibition Pavilion

In this context, the conference was organized by the Union of Marking and Strategy (UMS) - China Strategic Research Institute in Hanoi to discuss about the capacity and development directions of Vietnam's oil and petrochemical sectors in the next 5-10 years, and about the Vietnamese and Asian markets, in order to establish relationships among equipment suppliers in Southeast Asian countries as well as in the world as well as investors and production units in Vietnam. The conference brought together experts from around the world and shared case studies, discussed opportunities and provided solutions to the major challenges facing the industry. This is an opportunity for Petrochemicals and Refining companies to update and explore the cooperation.

Figure 3: Representatives of the Department of Petroleum Engineering report at the conference

The delegation of the CE-OGD was led by Dr. Dang Kim Hoang, Head of the delegation, reported on the role of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, University of Technology - Danang University in training human resources for the refining and petrochemical industries and the opportunities and challenges. More than 50% of Dung Quat's technology engineers graduated from Petroleum Engineering program of CE-OGD. The CE-OGD division also provided human resources for the company's plants such as PVGas Coperation (including Phu My Fertilizer, Ca Mau Gas, Dinh Co Gas Processing Plant ...), JGC, Technip, PVE, PVOil, Petrolimex, Skypec, Nalco… The delegation exchanged several points of views with the oil and gas companies in the world such as ExxonMobil, DuPont, GTC Technology, Shell, HIS Global, Foster Wheeler, KBR Technology, Kumhu P & B Chemicals, Amethek ...... as well as local companies such as Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (BSR), Chemical and Petroleum Drilling Corporation, Hi Hi-Pec, Bureau Veritas Vietnam ...

Figure 4: Discussion on the sidelines of the conference

From the conference, the delegation also recognized the development trends of the Vietnamese petrochemical industry in the next 10 years. Vietnamese Government will accelerate the expansion and construction of oil refinery projects, petrochemical complexes to meet fuel demand (gasoline, diesel, DO, FO, gas, etc.), orient to develop the production of intermediates (ethylene, BTX, synthetic gas ...) and petrochemical end products (chemicals, fertilizers, plastics ...).