Permit for $538m refinery revoked

CẦN THƠ — Cần Thơ City’s Department of Planning and Investment has withdrawn the investment licence of the long-delayed Cần Thơ Oil Refinery.

Licensed in May 2008, the project was intended to be developed by the local Viễn Đông company and American Semtech Ltd on a 250ha site in the Ô Môn District of the southern city. With a proposed investment capital of US$538 million, the project was expected to produce two million tonnes a year.

In July 2009, the investors received approval by the municipal People’s Committee to decrease their investment capital to $350 million and the refinery area to 50ha.

However, the investors failed to pay VNĐ150 billion in advance for land clearance, the online newspaper vneconomy.vn cited the department as saying.

Meanwhile, due to a lack of capital, Semtech Ltd withdrew from the project and Viễn Đông Co had to find other partners.   

In December 2014, local authorities warned that the firm would have its investment certificate revoked if work did not start by January 15, 2015, but with no result.

The oil refinery was to have been the largest project in the Mekong Delta city. — VNS