Bac Lieu LNG-to-power project triples January FDI inflow

The Bac Lieu LNG-to-power project was the determining force in the January FDI landscape

On January 21, Bac Lieu People’s Committee granted an investment decision to Singapore’s Delta Offshore Energy Pte., Ltd. (DOE) to build a 3,200MW liquefied natural gas-fired power plant.

The project, worth approximately $4 billion, is the biggest FDI project in the Mekong Delta region.

According to DOE, the project will comprise of a power plant built on 40 hectares in Vinh Hau A commune (Hoa Binh district), a floating station to receive and store 150,000-174,000 cubic metres of liquefied natural gas (LNG), a gas recycling station, and a 35km high-pressure gas pipeline.

By the end of 2020, the investor said it will complete the preparations for investment and in the next three years, it will deploy the construction of the LNG receiving and storage area and the gas recycling station, as well as bring the gas pipeline ashore and operate the first phase of the gas turbine with a designed capacity of 750MW.

Afterwards, it will continue installing and putting into operation the remaining turbines to reach the full capacity of 3,200MW before December 2027. The investor and EVN will discuss with each other about the price of electricity at a later date.

According to statistics published by the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, in the first month of 2020, Vietnam attracted $5.33 billion in foreign investment capital, up 2.8 times on-year. $4.46 billion of this was newly-registered capital, up 5.5 per cent, meanwhile, the added capital to existing projects was $334 million, equaling 98.1 per cent on-year. Besides, investment inflows via mergers and acquisitions reached $534.8 million, equaling 70.2 per cent of last year's figure.

Foreign investors disbursed $1.6 billion in the first month of this year, an increase of 3.2 per cent.

The Bac Lieu LNG-to-power project was the watershed that allowed the power distribution and generation sector to overcome manufacturing and processing to become the sector luring the largest foreign investment capital in January 2020 with the total $4.04 billion, making up 75.8 per cent of foreign investment capital inflows.

Singapore was the largest foreign investor in January with the registered capital of $4.16 billion, making up 78.1 per cent of the total investment capital. The runners up are South Korea with $264.5 million (5 per cent) and Hong Kong with $212 million.