PM urges haste on Vietnam’s second-largest gas project

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh wants the multibillion dollar Block B gas-to-power project to pick up speed towards feeding power plants in the Mekong Delta’s O Mon complex.

In a Monday dispatch, the PM assigned Deputy PM Tran Hong Ha the task of instructing the Ministry of Industry and Trade, state-run giant Petrovietnam and other stakeholders to work together and remove hurdles facing the long-delayed project so that the final investment decision can be made at the soonest possible.

Located in the Malay-Tho Chu basin, southwest Vietnam, Block B is the country’s second-largest upstream gas project after Ca Voi Xanh or Blue Whale. Its investors are PetroVietnam, Petrovietnam Exploration & Production, Japan’s Mitsui Oil Exploration, and Thailand’s PTTEP.

PetroVietnam has estimated that a total investment of $10 billion is needed to complete the project located about 400 kilometers from Can Tho city, which hosts the O Mon power complex.

The upstream project will be operated by Petrovietnam through its subsidiary Phu Quoc Petroleum Operating Co., or Phu Quoc POC.

Mitsui Oil Exploration has estimated that up to $30 billion would be needed for the gas project and the pipeline system running from the basin to the O Mon complex in Can Tho.

The Block B - O Mon gas pipeline will be the longest one in Vietnam at more than 430 kilometers. When completed, it will transport natural gas from Block B to O Mon. It will have a designed capacity of 18.3 million cubic meters per day.

Mitsui Oil Exploration had earlier proposed that a gas sales and purchase agreement (GSPA) and a gas transport agreement (GTA) be signed this June to pave the way for other works.

However, the two deals could not be finalized in June because Petrovietnam had to take over the management of the O Mon 3 and O Mon 4 gas-fired thermal power plant projects inside the O Mon complex from state utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN).

The management change was ordered by the PM as the utility was finding it very difficult to execute the two projects.

O Mon 3 and O Mon 4, with a capacity of 1,050 MW each, are components of the Block B gas-to-power project chain, which includes upstream (gas fields), midstream (gas pipeline projects) and downstream projects (power plants).

PetroVietnam plans to begin work this year on O Mon 3 and O Mon 4, the oil and gas giant had said late June. Earlier, it had pledged to deliver the first gas flow from Block B in the fourth quarter of 2026.