The US-based Black & Veatch will provide project management and design services for the 1,200 MW Long Phu 1 Power Plant in southern Soc Trang province, its contractor, Petro Vietnam Technical Services Corporation (PTSC), said on May 26.

"Apart from engineering and project management consulting experience, Black & Veatch has experience as an EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contractor in the power sector, which is of great importance in assisting PTSC with the engineering and construction of the [power plant]," Nguyen Tran Toan, deputy general director of PTSC, said.

PTSC is a subsidiary of PetroVietnam, the investor, and is the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for the plant.

PetroVietnam Power, another subsidiary, will operate the plant.

"PTSC's strong technical capabilities and their leadership in oil and gas combined with Black & Veatch's design and implementation knowledge is an example of how international partnerships can deliver innovative, quality solutions to meet Vietnam's growing power needs”, Gary Morrow, the US firm's senior vice president and director of power generation services, said.

Long Phu will be a coal-fueled facility and use the highly efficient super-critical technology.

The facility will consist of two 600 MW units. It will be the first of three planned power plants at the Long Phu Power Centre which will have a total capacity of 4,400 MW.

The Government has announced plans to build 90 coal-fired plants by 2025 at a cost of 83 billion USD and a combined capacity of 106,000MW.

PetroVietnam plans to add 9,000MW of power generation capacity by 2015./.