Thermal power project warms up

Representatives of PetroVietnam and international banks signed credit contracts at the company's headquarters in Ha Noi yesterday. — Photo PVcomBank

The loan agreements include a $330 million direct loan with KEXIM, $270 million KEXIM guaranteed loan with the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd (BTMU), CITI bank, HSBC bank, Mizuho bank, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), and Oversea Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), along with a $195.25 million commercial loan with BTMU, China Development Bank (CDB), CITI bank, HSBC, Mizuho, OCBC and SCB.

The loans will be used to pay for the purchase of equipment for the plant, including turbines, boilers and auxiliaries supplied by the consortium of Japan's Sojitz and Korea's Daelim, as well as construction and installation of the equipment on the 1,200MW plant. Speaking at the signing ceremony, deputy minister of Industry and Trade Ho Thi Kim Thoa said electricity growth in the past few years was double the GDP growth rate.

However, Thoa said electricity production had not met local demands, despite the strong growth.

She noted that the Vietnamese Government had strengthened its investment in electricity with an orientation to gradually reducing hydropower electricity and replace it with thermal power, as well as other renewable and clean energy.

The deputy minister said PetroVietnam has invested in large power projects, though the group is a new player in this field, and its power production accounted for 15 per cent of the country's total.

Nguyen Van Hau, PetroVietnam's chairman, said his company was confident that the project would come into operation as scheduled.

KEXIM, a Government financial institution, has been actively supporting Korean companies in doing business in Viet Nam by providing financial assistance to projects related to Korean companies. BTMU, CDB, CITI, HSBC, Mizuho, OCBC and SCB are the international banks that have a strong presence in Viet Nam and have long-term relationships with PetroVietnam, so co-operation would be beneficial to all parties.

PetroVietnam has been implementing several power plant projects. Covering an area of more than 254ha in Thai Binh Province's Thai Thuy Commune, the Thai Binh power complex includes the 600MW Thai Binh 1 thermal power plant funded by the Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) and the 1,200MW Thai Binh 2 thermal power plant invested by PetroVietnam.

Thai Binh 2 power plant has a total cost of more than $1.6 billion.

It will use a common coal-fueled furnace, which is an environmentally friendly technology and meets Vietnamese and international standards on emissions.

Once completed and put into operation, the plant is expected to provide more than 6.7 billion kWh for the national grid system.