Further upstream – Talk Vietnam

Khanh Hoa province, on the south-central coast, has recently been leading the way in attaining attraction from both domestic and foreign financiers when it comes to the gas and electricity sector. Among the suitors is one from the United States, proposing the Millennium gas power project with a forecast capacity of 14,400MW and 17 million tonnes of storage for liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year. Joining in are Embark United Co., Ltd. and US Quantum Corporation to establish a 6,000MW gas power venture and a port warehouse to receive and process six million tonnes of LNG per year. Japanese investors did also not ignore the opportunity to develop gas power projects in Khanh Hoa, as Sumitomo Corporation proposed to invest in a 3,000MW gas power scheme and a storage system for three million tonnes of LNG per year, while J-Power Co., Ltd. wants to invest in a gas turbine power project with a capacity of 3,000MW. Despite a slightly slower approach, the province is also seeing the presence of more domestic investors, led by Electricity of Vietnam which proposed a 6,000MW gas power project, while Petrolimex wants to build a warehouse for around three million tonnes of LNG per year. Those involved in the gas power sector all understand that developing such a project in Vietnam is a difficult task, as the country is still in the process of building its Power Development Plan 8 (PDP8). Nevertheless, the total installed capacity of power sources by 2030 is supposed to reach 137.2GW, of which gas accounts for 21 per cent. Tran Ky Phuc, director of the Institute of Energy under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) – the unit in charge of building the PDP8 – said that electricity demand in this plan is calculated lower than in the revised PDP7, reducing the forecast amount by 3-4 billion kWh in 2020 and 9-10 billion kWh in 2030. Realistic needs The development of gas power sources in Vietnam is the result of the exhaustion of fossil fuels, the …