The model of Long Son Petrochemicals Complex in the future. (Photo baobariavungtau.com.vn) Hanoi (VNA) - Thailand’s SCG Group wants entirestake of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) to own 100 percent of theLong Son Petrochemicals (LSP) Complex in the southern province of Ba Ria-VungTau.
This is one of the proposals SCG has sent to Prime Minister NguyenXuan Phuc. The group has asked to acquire 29 percent of PetroVietnam’s stake atLSP, attached with some conditions to implement the project, reported onlinenewspaper ndh.vn.
The proposal was sent after PetroVietnam had difficultyarranging its loan portion in the joint venture and in procedures for approvingbidding packages. This has a direct impact on the progress of the EngineeringProcurement and Construction (EPC) contract and as well as the project.Therefore, the bidding package has had to be extended many times since Long SonPetrochemical Company Limited approved the results regarding the selection ofEPC contractor in early July 2017.
If this proposal is approved by the Prime Minister, SCG will own100 percent of the 5.4 billion USD petrochemical project.
The LSP Complex was licensed in 2008 with an investment capital of 3.7billion USD and participation of PetroVietnam, Vietnam National Chemical Group (Vinachem)and SCG Group.
After many difficulties, Vinachem withdrew the capital and wasreplaced by Qatar Petroleum International (QPI). In April 2017, QPI alsodecided to withdraw all capital at LSP and transferred the amount of stake toSCG. As a result, SCG’s capital in LSP increased from 46 percent to 71 percent.
Initially, the project had an investment of about 3.7 billionUSD, which was increased to more than 4 billion USD, and finally to the currentinvestment of 5.4 billion USD. Long Son is the third petrochemical complex in Vietnam,following Dung Quat oil refinery and Nghi Son oil refinery and petrochemical complex.
LSP is a key petrol and oil project of the VietnameseGovernment. It is designed to have a capacity of 1.6 million tonnes of olefinper year.
Located on 464ha in the LSP Industrial Park, the project is expectedto be operational by 2022.
During the construction process, the project is expected tocreate some 15,000-20,000 jobs. Once complete, it will create more than 1,000jobs and is estimated to contribute some $115 million a year to the localbudget.-VNA
VNA
