Vietnam province pulls plug on Thai-proposed $20-billion refinery

By VnExpress   July 24, 2016 | 03:00 pm PT
Vietnam province pulls plug on Thai-proposed $20-billion refinery
Image of Vietnam's first refinery at Dung Quat. Photo by VnExpress/Tri Tin
The investor has been blamed for dragging its feet on the project.

Authorities in Binh Dinh Province have decided to shelve an ambitious plan to build a world-scale refinery proposed by Thailand's PTT and Saudi Aramco in the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone.

The decision was made after the investors failed to prove the feasibility of the project, Ho Quoc Dung, chairman of the provincial People's Committee, told a local legislature meeting on Friday.

The provincial government has been waiting for the investors’ final decision for too long and has missed the opportunity to attract other potential investors to the economic zone, Vietnam+, the online news portal of the Vietnam News Agency, quoted Dung as saying.

Dung added that Binh Dinh is looking for investors from Japan and Europe to invest in the province, but not necessarily in the oil sector.

On July 1, Saudi Aramco also withdrew from the project it had planned to set up with PTT. The Thai state-controlled firm will transfer the project to its 38.5 percent-owned subsidiary IRPC in Thailand, a source from PTT told ICIS, which calls itself the world's largest petrochemical market information provider, on July 1.

“PTT and Saudi Aramco have been looking for a capable Vietnamese company to be a partner on the project but we have not been successful,” the PTT source said.

In the feasibility study submitted to the Vietnamese government in September 2014, the two energy giants proposed setting up a fully integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in the central province of Binh Dinh with a crude processing capacity of 400,000 barrels per day. Investment for the project had been tagged at a potential $30 billion after initial estimates of $20 billion.

Related news:

Thailand's PTT delays $20 billion Vietnam refinery and petrochemical complex

 
 
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