The headquarters of Petrolimex in Hanoi

Petrolimex Director General Pham Duc Thang said his firm has inked a memorandum of understanding with Vietnam Electricity (EVN) to cooperate in clean energy development.

At a shareholders’ meeting in late April, Petrolimex Chairman Pham Van Thanh said the group had asked for the Government’s permission to halt the implementation of the Nam Van Phong oil refinery and petrochemical project in Khanh Hoa province.

He said the reason for the move was the fact Vietnam already has Dung Quat and Nghi Son oil refineries, which are able to meet 70 – 80 percent of the country’s oil and petrol demand.

Additionally, incentives for oil refinery projects are no longer as high as in the past. Therefore, Petrolimex and the foreign stakeholder, Japan’s JX company, decided to scrap the project.

However, the group has also asked for permission to build a LNG storage warehouse and an electricity centre on land previously zoned for the Nam Van Phong project.

Petrolimex said the gas-fueled power centre and LNG warehouse project will be carried out in two phases.

In the first phase from 2021 to 2025, two gas turbine power plants with total capacity of 3,000 MW and a warehouse able to store 180,000 cub.m. of LNG will be built. Two other gas turbine power plants will be constructed in the second phase.-VNA