Vietnam will hold a ceremony for the construction of its first oil refinery early next week, according to local newspaper Labor on Tuesday.

The Vietnamese government has allowed the state-owned Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation to organize the ceremony next Monday. The overall cost for the Dung Quat refinery in central Quang Ngai province with an annual refining capacity of 6.5 million tons of crude oil is estimated at 2.5 billion US dollars.

Recently, the National Assembly of Vietnam approved a resolution on speeding up the construction of the refinery so that it will become operational in late 2008 or early 2009. Once completed, it will meet some 40 percent of the local demand for petroleum products.

Vietnam exported nearly 15 million tons of crude oil valued at over 6.2 billion dollars in the first 10 months of this year, down 7.2 percent in volume but up 33.5 percent in value against the same period last year.

Meanwhile, it imported over 9.6 million tons of petroleum products worth roughly 4.2 billion dollars, posting respective rises of 4.7 percent and 43.1 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

Source: Xinhua