Powering up for 2011

On January 5, 2011 the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and PetroVietnam Technical Services Joint Stock Corporation (PTSC) started work on 1,200 megawatt Long Phu 1 thermal power plant in southern Soc Trang province’s Long Phu district. It was one of three thermal power plants under Long Phu Electricity Centre approved by the prime minister with a designed capacity of around 4,400MW.

Covering 115 hectares, Long Phu 1 thermal power plant strives to put its first turbine group into commercial exploitation in 2014 and finish construction in early 2015.

Also on January 5, Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) commenced the construction of 1,200MW Lai Chau Hydro-power plant in the northern highland province of Lai Chau in Muong Te district.

The hydro-power plant reports a total investment of VND35.700 trillion ($1.785 billion) and will produce 4.67 billion kWh of electric power per year when operational.

Also on the day, PVN and the VietsovPetro Joint Venture hailed the 190^th million tonne of crude oil extracted from the Bach Ho (White Tiger) and Rong (Dragon) oil-fields in Vietnam’s continental shelf. With 190 million tonnes of extracted crude oil, VietsovPetro earned $51 billion in sales revenue.

The launching of Dung Quat oil refinery, with PVN as the developer, took place on January 6.

The refinery started work in July 1997 and launched the first oil products in February 2009. The refinery has so far produced around seven million tonnes and sold out over 6.8 million tonnes of petroleum products of various kinds.

By the end of 2010, the refinery posted revenue of VN60 trillion ($300 million) and an estimated profits of VND237 billion ($11.85 million). In 2011, it is set to achieve revenue of VND77 trillion and profits of approximately VND550 billion. It now works on a plan to raise its capacity from 6.5 million to 10 million tonnes of crude oil per year.

A congratulatory ceremony on the launching of the first turbine at Son La Hydro-power Plant in northern mountainous Son La province’s Muong La district was slated in the first week of 2011.

Son La Hydro-power plant, with EVN as the developer, consists of six turbines with a total capacity of 2,400MW. Once operational, the plat would turn out an average 10.2 billion kWh per year (10 per cent of the country’s total power production output), generating $500 million in revenue and saving five million tonnes of coal.

Similarly, a ceremony to welcome the launching of the first turbine at Song Tranh 2 hydro-power plant was held on January 7. Completion of the190MW power plant was 12 days ahead of schedule with the first turbine connected to the national power system on December 20, 2010 and the second turbine to be merged to the system on January 25, 2011.

Two turbines at 180MW Dong Nai 3 Hydro-power Plant were expected to get connected to the national power system on January 8, 2011.