Bustle in Nghi Son construction site

Devoting their strength to work

     Present at the national main important project - the Nghi Son oil chemical refinery plant located in the area of 570 ha of Nghi Son Economic Zone, we could help being astonished. From safe distance on the ground, between workers and machineries, transporting equipment, to climbing technique, oxyacetylene welding... in all jobs, the workers were trained and issued certificates. Just a very small carelessness, there will be implicit dangers. So, in addition to having adequate compulsory safety working equipment, the enterprize always reminds their labourers to obey regulations of Company, Project Management Board as well as keep a real distance for absolute safety in working. "Because of well doing this job, our enterprize has reduced and had no serious labour accidents", said Engineer Nguyen Nho Hung (Enterprize 10-1, Lilama 10).

    Inside the oil tank area with thousands of steel sticks, scaffolds put up in close proximity to one another, according to Engineer Hung, Lilama 10 was responsible for installing the item of 2 oil tanks. Each tank had capacity of 96,000m3, diameter of 89m, 19.9m high and more than 2,000 tons heavy; including 8 floors and each floor had 20 pieces, each piece weighed about 8 tons, at the bottom floor particularly each piece weighed 12 tons. It took about a year and it needed 120 workers to install these two oil tanks. For other items such as installing pipes, manufacturing pipes..., they would need more people. At the moment, the Company is exceeding the construction schedule, especially the item of installing tanks is 2.5 months in excess of the schedule committed to Owner. Director of Enterprize 10-1 Phu Van Viet let us know, the work volume of installing steel structures, piping, equipment and oil tanks had the total value of 353 billion dongs, Lilama 10 had mobilized 810 talented engineers, skilled workers including many people had experience in Dung Quat oil refinery plant to participate in this project. Up to now, the enterprize has finished by 30% of the work volume. However, they are now facing some hardships: there are some items intermixing between construction contractor and installation contractor and so the work is inconvenient; late material arrival, non-synchronism, some materials have arrived but cannot be installed due to obstacles on the area. To assure the schedule, the enterprize has covered the site with canvas, they have also proposed Lilama Corp. to require Owner to provide adequate equipment & materials and have a suitable plan for concerning units. Director Phu Van Viet affirmed that until the end of this year, Lilama 10 would mobilize their manpower and facilities to strive for accomplishing 90% of their assigned work volume and contract value.

Overcoming difficulties and finishing duties

   Thousands of Lilama workers are overcoming hardships in Nghi Son construction site and in an urgent labour atmosphere. Engineer Pham Duc Van (from Tu Ky, Hai Duong) who had been working for Lilama for 10 years was very proud to participate in this project, a main important one of the country, he said while installing pipes with his hands. In addition to an income of VND 10 million monthly (paid based on the construction schedule), labourers are also favoured by the company in accommodations, so they can save money to send to their families. "Although having steady income, we are always far from our families, we have no time to take care of our children. I must rely on my wife to look after my parents and bring up the children. Even many couples are both far from home, they have to take the kids to their grandparents. And we encourage eachother to overcome the difficulties and well finish our work", shared Engineer Pham Duc Van.

   Lilama Vice General Director cum Director of Lilama Nghi Son project board Tran Dinh Dai let us know the lives and living standards of the employees met a lot of hardships because most of them were from many regions and they had to stay at the hostels. The hostels had no plan of economic zone, so there was a shortage of fresh water and they had to use water from deep wells. The working regulations were under serious supervision of Project Management Board (PMB) and Owner, so they could not organize extra shifts by themselves. If they wanted to work in an extra shift, they had to register in advance and be accepted by PMB. At the moment, Lilama has more than 2,000 labourers participating to perform the project. Up to the real situation, from June to December of this year, they will mobilize about 6,000 - 8,000 labourers if necessary. Since the deployment (July 2014) up to now, Lilama has been implementing all items of the project, among which 8 tanks of raw oil, 2 packages of manufacture, 10 packages of installation have been deployed... As estimated, 8,000 tons of steel structures and 15,000 tons of equipment have been manufactured; 6,000 tons of steel structured have been taken to site and 150,000 ID (piping) have been finshed; they are now striving for accomplishing about 70% of the project plan, equivalent to 2,800 billion dongs.

The Nghi Son oil chemical refinery plant with capacity of 10 million tons per year (200 tanks a day) has a total investment of USD 9 billion and its was a joint-venture of Petroleum of Viet Nam (PVN) with 25.1% in capital; the Kuwait Petroleum with 35.1% and two companies: Idemitsu Kosan & Mitsui Chemicals of Japan with 35.1% & 4.7% in capital. As anticipated, the plant will be finished in 2017, and when being put into operation, it will satisfy approximately 70% of the oil petrol need of the whole country.

News: Hoang Anh - Photos: Viet Cuong