Deputy Chair of the Quang Ngai provincial People’sCommittee Pham Nhu So was quoted as saying that US-based ExxonMobil,after carrying out field research, has expressed a wish to develop aproject to bring gas ashore and build a gas-run 4,000-5,000 MW powerplant, capitalised at 20 billion USD in total.
Exxon Mobil isconsidering two solutions, either bringing gas from Blue Whale oil fieldto the Bau Ca Cai area, near the Dung Quat Oil Refinery and building apower plant in Quang Ngai province, or bringing gas to the Tam Hiepfishing port area and building a power plant in Quang Nam province, nearthe Dung Quat Economic Zone.
Nguyen Hoai Giang, President of theBinh Son Petrochemical Refinery Company, commented that the lattersolution has proved to be better, because ExxonMobil will be able totake full advantage of infrastructure facilities like a deep water portand favourable transport system.
Under the Vietnam’s gas industrydevelopment programme by 2015-2025, a gas pipeline system would bebuilt which would bring gas from the oil fields of the blocks No 117,118 and 119 ashore (the expected designed capacity is 2-4 billion cubicmeters per annum).
The Government is also considering building agas processing plant with the capacity of 1-4 billion cubic meters perannum in the area which is expected to become operational by 2018.
Accordingto former Chair of Quang Ngai province Cao Khoa, the investor needs 200hectares of land for the project, of which 100 hectares will be used inthe first phase when a 1,500 MW power plant is built.
Local authorities have promised to provide “cleared land”, ready for the project development to the investor.
New foreign direct investment from the US
An official from the Quang Ngai provincial authorities said they areconsidering offering special investment incentives to ExxonMobil, if itmakes investment in the province, affirming that Quang Ngai can satisfyall the investor’s requirements on land and infrastructure.
Do Nhat Hoang, Director of the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA), noted that he can see a new investment wave from the US.
Hesaid Vietnamese agencies and local authorities have received manygroups of US investors, namely Globe Venture Inc and Pacific DevelopmentLLC, so far this year, who came to learn about the opportunities todevelop infrastructure projects, including a highway in An Giangprovince and the Van Don Economic Zone in Quang Ninh province.
Hoangsaid that in the first two months of this year , US investorsregistered investment capital of up to 1.3 billion USD, huge capitalwhich helped it jump from the seventh to the first position on the listof the big foreign investors in Vietnam.
Of the five US investedprojects in Vietnam this year, the biggest one is the 5-star complex ofhotel and entertainment park in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, capitalised at1.29 billion USD, registered by Good Choice Group.-VNA