Phu Quoc POC secures service deals for Vietnam’s second-largest gas project

Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Petroleum Operation Company, operator of the major Block B gas development project, has secured project management support service (PMSS) deals from service suppliers.

The service suppliers are a consortium between international firm Orion Petroleum and Petrovietnam Logistics Services JSC; a consortium between Petrovietnam’s PVChem and Amoria Bond; and Oil and Gas Drilling Investment Service Enterprise under Petrovietnam Drilling and Drilling Services Corporation.

The deals total $50 million in value, with services to be supplied to Phu Quoc POC, the project operator, across the whole lifespan of the project. Phu Quoc POC is a part of Petrovietnam, the country’s oil and gas group.

Located in the Malay-Tho Chu basin, southwest Vietnam, Block B is the country’s second-largest gas project after Ca Voi Xanh, or Blue Whale.

Petrovietnam estimates a total investment of $10 billion is needed to complete the Block B project, about 400 kilometers from Can Tho city, the Mekong Delta’s hub.

The project, also known as Vietnam Gas Project, will comprise a gas field development and its pipeline system linking the field to O Mon Power Complex in Can Tho.

Petrovietnam, in collaboration with its subsidiary Petrovietnam Exploration Production Corporation (PVEP), Mitsui & Co, and PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) is in the process of developing the gas field in Block B.

The Block B - O Mon gas pipeline system will be more than 430 kilometers long, the longest pipeline in Vietnam. When completed, it will transport natural gas from Block B to O Mon. The designed capacity is 18.3 million cubic meters per day.

In addition to the O Mon Power Complex, natural gas will also feed the power and fertilizer complex in the southernmost province of Ca Mau, as well as other consumers in the Mekong Delta.

This February, Japan’s Marubeni Corporation signed a heads of agreement (HOA) with Petrovietnam for the latter’s supply of Block B natural gas to Marubeni’s O Mon 2 thermal power project in the O Mon complex.

The $1.3 billion O Mon 2 project with a designed capacity of 1,050 megawatts is under construction. It is a partnership between Marubeni and Vietnamese construction firm Vietracimex.

In April, Petrovietnam required its subsidiary Phu Quoc POC to speed up all work in the Block B project so that its natural gas can reach the mainland in 2026.

As for Marubeni, in addition to O Mon 2, the Japanese set up a joint venture called Quang Ninh LNG Power JSC in November last year to begin a feasibility study for the Quang Ninh LNG-to-power project in the northern province. The three others in the partnership are Japan’s Tokyo Gas Co, Petrovietnam Power Corp, and Vietnamese firm Colavi.

An investment of $2 billion is estimated for the 1,500 MW power project, which will be the largest of its kind in Vietnam. It will also include an LNG terminal, storage system, and regasification facilities.