Thailand’s Gulf Energy eyes 6,000 MW LNG-fired power plant in northern Vietnam

Thailand’s Gulf Energy has again shown interest in building an LNG-fired power plant in Vietnam’s northern province of Nam Dinh with a capacity of up to 6,000 megawatts to feed the country’s energy hunger.

At a meeting late last week with Pham Gia Tuc, chief of the provincial Party Committee, Somsack Chunata, senior advisor to Gulf Energy, expressed hope of signing a memorandum of understanding with the provincial administration for the plant and carry out follow-up procedures accordingly.

The Thai executive promised to offer attractive selling prices and asked for the province’s support in negotiating a power purchase agreement with Vietnam Electricity (EVN), the sole power distributor in the country.

In addition, Chunata asked Nam Dinh authorities to complete procedures for construction of a deep-water port to help the Thai firm transport equipment and materials for the power plant.

In response, Pham Gia Tuc welcomed Gulf Energy’s interest and shared that under a master plan to be announced this week, the province will see a series of industrial parks and industrial clusters constructed, thus power demand will be high.

The province is also seeking government approval on a plan to build a general port in Nghia Hung district that will be able to handle vessels of up to 300,000 metric tons.

In other news, PV Gas Corp, a leading gas producer and distributor in the country, last month proposed erecting an LNG hub in the city to supply gas across a radius of 200 kilometers.

As such, the province has favorable conditions for Gulf Energy to develop an LNG-to-power plant in the province, Tuc said, adding that after an MoU is signed, the province will work with government agencies to facilitate such facility.

This was the second time Gulf Energy officially met with provincial authorities to revive a thermal power plant project worth more than $2 billion in the province.

At a meeting with provincial authorities in October 2023, Panawit Sidejchayabhon, CEO of Gulf Energy (Vietnam) Co., shared that the firm had reached an in-principle agreement with South Korea’s Taekwang Power to either jointly develop or take over the Nam Dinh 1 power project and turn it from a coal-fired plant to an LNG plant.

The province had earmarked some 300 hectares for the project with an investment permit secured from the Ministry of Planning and Investment in 2017. It was slated to have a capacity of 1,109 MW and kick off construction in mid-2018, but no progress has been made since.

Vietnam has no LNG-fired power plants in operation at present.