South Korea’s Hyundai Oilbank Co has leased oil storage in Vietnam’s southern coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, in a bid to increase its exports to Southeast Asia, the refiner said on Wednesday.
The company plans to use the Vietnamese oil storage, which has about 200,000 barrels of fuel storage capacity, as its export hub to tap further into Southeast Asia through direct sales and geographical advantage, Hyundai Oilbank said in a statement.
The refiner said it aims to double its exports to Southeast Asia from about 300 million barrels and to export petrochemical and lube base oil products from 2021.
Southeast Asia’s oil demand is expected to surpass 9 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2040, up from the current demand of 6.5 million bpd, the International Energy Asia’s said in report released in late October.
Hyundai Oilbank, South Korea’s smallest refiner by capacity, has a total refining capacity of 690,000 bpd, including its 170,000-bpd condensate splitter in the southwestern city of Daesan in South Korea.