Central Vietnam province targets August approval for Korea-invested LNG power project FS report

Quang Tri province aims to approve a 1-to-500-ratio plan for the Dong Nam Quang Tri economic zone and a feasibility study report for the 1,500-MW LNG-fired power project in it by August 30.

Vice Chairman Ha Sy Dong of the central province said this at a Tuesday working session with the Ministry of Construction on the progress of the Dong Nam Quang Tri economic zone.

The LNG-to-power project, also called LNG Hai Lang Power Center, should enter first phase operation before 2029, Dong said, requesting local authorities to focus on this project.

For its part, the economic zone management board made technical proposals, including relocation of areas within the economic zone, including a 155-hectare land lots for oil-gas industry and a 500-kV power line connecting the Hai Lang facility to Quang Tri’s power center.

The 1,500-MW Hai Lang Power Center, with an investment of $2.3 billion, is conducted by a consortium, comprising South Korea's Hanwha Energy, Korea Gas (Kogas) and Korea Southern Power (Kospo), and Vietnam’s T&T Group.

The consortium had broken ground for the first phase of the $2.3-billion LNG power complex in January 2022, but little progress has been made since.

Just a day earlier, provincial authorities attending the Vietnam-South Korea business forum held in Seoul as part of Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s June 30-July 3 visit to South Korea had signed a memorandum of understanding on green growth and energy transition with South Korea’s SK E&S under SK Group and Vietnam’s T&T Group.

Under the MoU, they will collaborate in coal-to-LNG conversion for a power plant, green hydrogen production, carbon emission reduction and carbon credit management.

The predecessor of the LNG-fired thermal plant was the $2.3 billion, 1,320-MW Quang Tri I coal-fired power plant, which was to be built and operated by EGAT International (EGATi), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.

Construction of the project began in November 2019, but made scant progress after. In September-October 2023, EGATi signed documents with Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade and Quang Tri authorities to terminate the project.