Biofuel plant halts production

A senior official at PetroVietnam Central Biofuels JSC, the operator of the plant in the central province of Quang Ngai, confirmed production at the project has been halted. He added that the company will discuss obstacles facing the plant as well as solutions to address the issues in the coming shareholders’ meeting.

PetroVietnam’s wholly-owned Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical, the operator of the 6.5 million tons/year Dung Quat refinery, currently holds the majority stake in the ethanol plant following the withdrawal of two other PetroVietnam units-Petrosetco and PVFC.

According to the Quang Ngai Tax Department, the plant’s outstanding debt at three local banks was standing at around VND1 trillion ($44.7 million) as of last year. PetroVietnam Central Biofuels JSC has to repay VND100 billion in principle this year, and set aside VND70 billion for interest repayments for other loans, which have been categorized as “unrecoverable” at other banks.