HANOI, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Pacific Development Group based in the United States wants to build an oil refinery capable of annually processing 10 million tons of crude oil in Vietnam's southern Ca Mau province, according to local newspaper Vietnam Investment Review on Monday.

    The group will sign a memorandum of understanding with Ca Mau next month for developing the project, the newspaper quoted Le Huynh Ky, director of the provincial Planning and Investment Department, as saying.

    He said the group had yet to reveal the total investment for the future oil refinery, but said it could be the sole investor. Raw materials for the refinery would come from other countries.

    Despite being Southeast Asia's third largest crude oil exporter, Vietnam still relies entirely on petroleum product imports as it lacks its own refineries.

    Dung Quat, Vietnam's first refinery with an annual processing capacity of 6.5 million tons of crude oil under construction with investment of 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in central Quang Ngai province, is scheduled to operate in February 2009. Its sole investor is state-owned Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam).

    Construction of the second oil refinery named Nghi Son in northern Thanh Hoa province with initial investment of 6.2 billion dollars started in May. It will have refinery capacity of 10 million tons of crude oil per annum once put into operation in 2013.

    The Nghi Son project is a joint venture between Petro Vietnam, Kuwait Petroleum International and Japanese companies of Idemitsu Kosan Corp and Mitsui Chemicals Inc.

    The Vietnamese government has given permission for the third refinery, with the first choice of location to be in southern Ba Ria Vung Tau province, built either solely or jointly by foreign investors, or by local companies.

    The refinery, set to be operational before 2015, will be designed to process 10-15 million tons of crude oil annually.

    Vietnam exported 7.8 million tons of crude oil worth 6.8 billion dollars in the first seven months of this year, down 12.1 percent in volume, but up 52.2 percent in value against the same period last year, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

    Meanwhile, it imported roughly 8.3 million tons of petroleum products totaling nearly 7.8 billion dollars, up 11.4 percent and 90.7 percent, respectively.