Oil refineries

United Refining Company oil refinery, Warren, photo by Pennsylvania by OZinOH, taken on May 30th 2010. Licensed under: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

There is currently no commercial facility for refining oil in Cambodia. Although an agreement to construct a refinery was announced in 2013, this has faced delays. A refinery will clearly be of significant benefit to the country if and when the production of offshore or onshore Cambodian oil begins. 

In April 2013, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Cambodian Petrochemical Company (CPC) and China-based Sinomac China Perfect Machinery Industry Corp for the development of Cambodia’s first oil refinery. The US$2.3 billion construction was projected to take approximately 3 years to be fully established on an 365-hectare site at the boundary of Preah Sihanouk province and Kampot province. It was estimated that the whole construction would be completed in 2018, providing the Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank) funded the first investment loan of $1.67 billion.​¹ Sinomac then expected to produce five million tons of refined oil products annually, with two million tons per year supply for domestic demand and three million tons to be traded with ASEAN countries.

The project has been delayed due to planning difficulties. In early 2015, the Cambodia Petroleum Company confirmed the early stages of construction of the oil refinery project were underway, but significant design work remained to be done.²

Last updated: 1 July 2015