Honeywell picks training strings for a refinery in Vietnam

MUMBAI, INDIA: Honeywell Process Solutions announced that it would train technical personnel at Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Limited Liability Company's (NSRP) new 200,000 barrel-per-day complex being built in Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam.

Honeywell will be responsible for helping to prepare the workforce for the refinery's 2017 start-up as well as the ongoing operational and business readiness of the facility. Nghi Son Refinery will be the country's second, and largest, refinery and will meet about 30 per cent of Vietnam's growing demand for refined petroleum products, such as motor fuel and petrochemicals.

Vietnam is a net exporter of crude oil, producing more than 350,000 barrels per day of crude oil. But with limited refining capacity, the country currently imports more than half of its refined products to meet demand.

"This refinery will be an important part of Vietnam's energy picture, enabling us to turn our own vast oil reserves into finished products," said Kazutoshi Shimmura, general director of NSRP.

On projects such as the NSRP refinery, Honeywell is able to implement a standardized training strategy, which includes a targeted, cost-effective program that addresses gaps in experience and competency of the recruited workforce, it adds. Honeywell says its in-country experience also enables it to identify and empower local educational institutions to provide a large share of training deliverables.

"The training partnership between Honeywell and NSRP will help to enable the refinery workforce to become more productive faster, increasing value and safety to NSRP's operations," said John Rudolph, vice president of Honeywell Process Solutions. In addition, Honeywell's comprehensive project management solution allows execution of training programs on time and on budget. It further increases overall training retention, which will translate to faster, incident-free startups.

The Nghi Son Refinery project is a joint venture of Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN), Kuwait Petroleum Europe BV (KPE), Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd (IKC) and Mitsui Chemicals, Inc (MCI).

Honeywell has had a presence in Vietnam for the past 10 years, and in 2012, it partnered with PetroVietnam University to establish a regional Automation College in Hanoi. The goal of this partnership is to enhance the technical skills of the local engineering community in the application of plant automation and process control technologies, as well as build and sustain a strong future talent pool to support the projected process industry growth in Vietnam and South East Asia.