PTT postpones $20 billion Victory Nhon Hoi refinery project

June 30, 2016 | 15:29

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Thailand's largest energy company PTT Public Company Limited (PTT) has postponed plans to build the $20 billion Victory Nhon Hoi refinery and petrochemical complex in the south-central coastal province of Binh Dinh, due to the uncertainty of the global oil market.

According to Nguyen Ngoc Toan, deputy director of the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone Management Authority, the company issued the proposal during the working session with the management board on June 25.

Toan added that, along with the uncertainty of the global oil market, the company has yet to complete the project study as well as dossiers for the investment certificate. It will delay the project and review the investment at the end of the year.

State-controlled PTT studied the possibility of investing in central Vietnam for more than four years now and had aimed to start construction this year, in partnership with Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco).

Victory Nhon Hoi complex is planned to cover 1,400 hectares in the central province of Binh Dinh’s Nhon Hoi Economic Zone and is designed to refine around 20 million tonnes of crude oil per year. The investors are expected to increase the capacity to 30 million tonnes and the total investment capital to some $30 billion after 2021, and complete construction in 2021-2025.

However, the project’s investment certificate has been delayed by the investors’ failure to complete the procedures, despite the local authorities’ commitment to create favourable conditions for the completion and implementation of the project.

In April, the company announced that they might deviate from the original plan and reduce the project’s capacity.

Accordingly, the project’s investment was set below $22 billion, with a production capacity of 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), lower than the $28.7 billion in investment and 660,000 bpd capacity initially proposed in November 2012.