Vietnam refinery to use 30,000 bpd of Bach Ho from Feb

HANOI, July 21 (Reuters) - Vietnam's first refinery will use about 30,000 barrels per day of Bach Ho crude oil when it is put into trial operation in February next year, a Petrovietnam official said on Monday.

The 140,000-bpd Dung Quat refinery will run at 30,000-bpd capacity for about three months between February and May, after which production would be doubled to 60,000 bpd, the official, who declined to be identified, said.

"We aim to have the refinery running at 100 percent capacity by the end of 2009," he added.

Last week Petrovietnam said it had completed 84 percent of the construction and engineering work at the $2.5-billion plant.

Petrovietnam, which now exports all of its Bach Ho output, which averages about 140,000 bpd, is expected to cut exports of the grade from December to around 100,000 bpd to save for Dung Quat's feed.

Production from the Bach Ho oil field, Vietnam's biggest, accounts for about half of the country's total crude oil production of about 290,000 bpd.

Petrovietnam and Japanese refiner Idemitsu (5019.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Kuwait Petroleum International are also building Vietnam's second refinery, the $6 billion 200,000-bpd Nghi Son plant, in the country's north, with completion slated in 2013. (Reporting by Nguyen Nhat Lam; Editing by Michael Urquhart)