PetroVietnam Transportation Co (PV Trans) signed with three local partners on June 7 to form the Crude Oil Transportation Joint Stock Co with an investment of 190 million USD. Partners include the PetroVietnam Finance Co, PetroVietnam Insurance and Vietcombank, which each will hold a 10-per-cent stake in the new company.
The new firm is expected to help PetroVietnam meet the increasing demand for crude oil transportation in the local and global market, according to PV Trans CEO Bui Tho Manh.
Manh said the new company would initially operate three crude oil tankers with a capacity of 105,000 tonnes each, which will be built by the country’s leading ship-builder, Vinashin.
Vinashin will deliver the first tanker in February 2009 and the two others in early 2010, Manh said at the signing ceremony in Ha Noi.
“Those tankers will transport crude oil from offshore oil platforms to oil refineries at Dung Quat, Nghi Son and Long Son,” he said.
Manh said the new company would increase its fleet to seven by 2010 and would be able to serve foreign customers such as Venezuela and Cuba.
PV Trans, a subsidiary of the Viet Nam’s largest oil and gas firm, PetroVietnam, currently operates two oil tankers, the Poseidon M and Hercules M. The firm has earned 1.1 trillion VND (68.75 million USD) since established in 2003.
