PetroVietnam inks scores of weighty deals with Koreans

PetroVietnam is becoming the visible face of Vietnamese business abroad

According to a PetroVietnam source, the signed projects covered the coal-fired Thai Binh 2 power plant, Vung Tau thermal power plant, liquid petroleum gas (LPG) underground storage sight and the second Nam Con Son pipeline.

The Korean parties involved were Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra), Posco, Shinhan Bank, SK Engineering & Construction, Samsung C&T and Samsung Engineering.

The memorandums of understanding and agreements were signed during Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s trip to Seoul to attend the G20 Summit.

A PetroVietnam delegation, led by its chairman Dinh La Thang, organised an investment promotion conference entitled “Investment opportunities with PetroVietnam” in Seoul.

The conference took place under the sponsorship of South Korea’s Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the Vietnamese embassy in South Korea.

PetroVietnam introduced 36 projects worth $25.5 billion for electricity generation, seaport, real estate, industrial zones, infrastructure, and oil and gas.

They included key national projects, such as the Dung Quat oil refinery, the Long Son oil refinery, the Ca Mau fertiliser factory, the Vung Ang thermo-electric project and Thai Binh 2, Long Phu 1, Quang Trach 1 and Song Hau 1 thermo-electric projects.

Thang also met with Deputy Minister of Knowledge Economy Park Young Jun, Kotra’s president and leaders of SK Energy, KNOC, Huyndai, Daewoo, Lotte, Posco and Doosan.

The feasibility study on building the second natural gas pipeline in the country’s Nam Con Son basin is under design. Expected to be operational in 2014, the pipeline will take natural gas from Blocks 05.1 and 05.2 to feed power plants in Phu My in the southern oil and gas hub province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

Vietnam started its largest cold LPG Thi Vai storage sight in Ba Ria-Vung Tau’s Cai Mep Industrial Zone last year worth $138 million. The project is being constructed by a consortium of PetroVietnam Construction Joint Stock Corporation (PVC) and Daewoo Engineering Company under an EPC contract.

The Thai Binh 2 coal-fired power plant is part of the Thai Binh power centre which combines two power plants with an overall generation capacity of 1,800 megawatts, in northern Thai Binh province. With an estimated investment capital of some $1.6 billion, the plant is scheduled to be commissioned in December 2014, utilising local coal to burn its turbines. PetroVietnam is generating about 2,000MW of power annually, making up around 13 per cent of the whole country’s power generation capacity.

In July 2010, PetroVietnam already signed a memorandum with Posco to develop power projects in Vietnam, which is facing a serious supply shortages.