Investors, especially foreign investors, are lining up to join the project to enhance and expand Dung Quat Refinery despite the uncertain deadline for completing the expansion due to the unapproved environmental impact assessment report.

Hyundai Engineering is the latest investor trying to get the EPC contract for the Dung Quat Refinery expansion project

Heavyweights for Dung Quat Refinery

Most recently, vice chairwoman of the Committee for Management of State Capital at Enterprises Nguyen Thi Phu Ha had a working session with C.H. Kim, director of process plant of HEC.

At the working session, on behalf of HEC, Kim expressed interest in enhancing and expanding Dung Quat Refinery which is managed by Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co., Ltd. (BSR). The representative of HEC also affirmed that the company can arrange the capital for the project on its own. 

Ha added that along with HEC, numerous investors are eyeing Dung Quat Refinery.

Previously, in September 2018, the joint venture of Wagan Corporation, GHN Group, and Masters Depot, as well as domestic firm Tin Thanh Group Co., Ltd. looked to co-operate with each other to enhance and expand Dung Quat Refinery.

The parties discussed plans for the input and output of the plant as well as technology to be applied. However, to date, no more information has been forthcoming.

Back to HEC, if the company is approved to join the Dung Quat Refinery project, it will become the contractor of the two largest oil petrochemical and refinery projects in Vietnam.

In August 2017, HEC announced that it won a contract worth $320 million to build facilities at Long Son petrochemical complex in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. 

Under the deal, the builder will construct infrastructure, such as supportive boilers and water treatment facilities, to produce steam and industrial water for the complex.

Industrial water and steam produced at the water treatment facilities and supportive boilers will be supplied to the petrochemical complex according to need. It is the core project to help plants at the complex to operate smoothly.

Besides, HEC took part in designing Mong Duong coal-fired thermal power plant in the northern province of Quang Ninh. It was the company’s second turnkey power plant construction contract won in Vietnam after the project to expand a thermal power complex in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau in 1999.

Environmental impact assessment report refused five times

According to Decision No.99016/QD-DKVN on December 22, 2014 of PetroVietnam, the expansion of Dung Quat Refinery would be implemented within 78 months from the day of issuing the dossiers for the front-end engineering design (FEED) (April 27, 2015). This means that the construction would be completed in October 2021. 

However, as of now, the project’s environmental impact assessment report has yet to be approved and there are difficulties in arranging the investment capital, thus, the selection of an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor may be delayed to June 2020. As a result, the deadline for completing the expansion had to moved to May 2024, 31 months after the initial plan.

At present, the investor has compensated 99.8 per cent of local residents and completed 95.6 per cent of the land clearance. The remaining work is expected to be finished next month.

BSR is awaiting the approval of the environmental impact assessment report, which is the largest bottleneck delaying the project.

According to PetroVietnam, in March 2017, BSR submitted the report to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), however, until December 14, 2018, after four other reports, the MoNRE has yet to approve. 

On January 4, 2019, PetroVietnam submitted a document to explain problems, and simultaneously asked the MoNRE to accelerate the approval process. To this day, the company has yet to receive comments from the ministry.

VIR