Vietnam News Network

Four major banks signed a credit agreement with Van Phong Bonded Petroleum Terminal Joint Venture Company Limited worth US$77.5 million for the nation’s first bonded warehouse for petroleum in central Nha Trang city.

The sum is repayable over 12 years.

Th banks are Petrolimex Group Commercial Joint Stock Bank (PG Bank), the Military Bank (MB), the Sai Gon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) and the Bank for Industry and Trade Bank (Vietinbank).

Construction on the $125 million oil warehouse, one of the key projects in the national development strategy, began in December 2007 in the Van Phong Economic Zone in Ninh Hoa District, Khanh Hoa Province.

A source at Van Phong Bonded Petroleum Terminal Joint Venture Co said the project was halted last year because of the global economic downturn and that work had only just resumed.

"Thus, we have just completed 20 per cent of the project," he said, adding that it should be completed by 2011.

The warehouse will be equipped with the latest environmentally-friendly technology and will be able to handle 150,000-dwt oil tankers.

Khanh Hoa People’s Committee vice chairman Nguyen Chien Thang said he believed the project would boost industrial development in the province and attract more foreign investment.