Sembcorp’s $2.5 billion plant tardy

At a recent meeting with the Quang Ngai People’s Committee, Sembcorp’s ASEAN region business development deputy director Low Min confirmed the new timeline for the 1,200 megawatt project. He said that the Vietnamese government has allowed Sembcorp to change the power project from coal-fired to gas-fired.

In the middle of last year, the investor abruptly asked to change the project’s implementation technology from thermal power to gas-fired power. This means that the pace of the project will be largely dependent on the progress of the Blue Whale gas project, led by US energy giant ExxonMobil. The project is located about 80 kilometres off Vietnam’s coast, between the central provinces of Quang Nam and Quang Ngai.

Min also said Sembcorp had regularly co-ordinated and worked with the local relevant authorities to study the plant, which is expected to be built in the period from 2023-2024.

Quang Ngai was set to give the first-phase clear land to the investor in 2016’s first quarter, and the second-phase clear space in the fourth quarter, laying the groundwork for the investor to kick off project implementation in 2017. The plant’s first turbine group was slated to begin commercial operation in September 2020, and the entire project was to have been commissioned from March 2021.

This is the second power project Sembcorp has been involved with in Vietnam. 10 years ago, the Singaporean investor, in a partnership with Kyushu Electricity, Sojitz Corporation, and BP, invested in the 749MW Phu My 3 power plant.

A list of delayed power projects in Vietnam, including Duyen Hai 2, Duyen Hai 3 and its expansion, Long Phu 1, Song Hau 1, Vinh Tan 1, and Vinh Tan 4, have just received a ‘warning’ from the government to focus on propelling their pace, as well as limit the use of fuel for power production in their planned operations due to environmental concerns.