Operators of what will be Vietnam's largest oil refinery, the $8 billion, 200,000-barrel-per-day Nghi Son plant, are to hold an international tender to pick a builder for the facility, a state-run newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Nghi Son Port is ready to serve the operation of the Nghi Son oil refinery.

The Nghi Son venture planned to sign an engineering, procurement and construction contract with the winning bidder late in the third quarter of this year, the Labour Confederation-run Lao Dong newspaper said.

State oil and gas group Petrovietnam is developing the refinery in the northern province of Thanh Hoa in a venture with Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) and Japan's Idemitsu Kosan Co, with each of the latter holding a 35.1 percent stake.

Several international refinery contractors have expressed interest, including Japanese firms and France's Technip, which built Vietnam's first refinery, the 140,000-bpd Dung Quat plant, Petrovietnam officials have said.

Petrovietnam Construction Corp PVX.HN has started levelling the site, about 180 km (110 miles) south of Hanoi.

The construction of the Nghi Son refinery is scheduled to be completed in late 2013. The new refinery and Dung Quat will together satisfy 80 percent of domestic consumption of oil products.

Petrovietnam plans to raise between $1 billion and $2 billion through bond sales at home and abroad to raise funds for investment in 2011, including the Nghi Son project, Petrovietnam was quoted as saying.

The government has said that some of the funds raised in its recent $1 billion, 10-year sovereign bond sale would go towards the Dung Quat facility.