British Petroleum and PetroVietnam – major gas distributors for electricity supplier EVN – have agreed to reschedule pipeline overhauls in Nam Con Son oil field to avert major power shortages.
The major gas distributors were planning a two-week halt in supply from the Nam Con Son oil field offshore Ba Ria – Vung Tau in southern Vietnam in June for pipeline overhauls.
But the work has been rescheduled to September for fear of exacerbating ongoing power shortages after BP, PetroVietnam, EVN and other agencies met Tuesday to discuss the issue.
EVN utilizes some 13 million cubic meters of gas daily from Nam Con Son to produce 3,500 MW – about 30% of the nation’s power supply.
Tran Minh Nga, head of BP Vietnam, said the stoppage was aimed at increasing capacity to 15 million cubic meters per day.
Power demand in Vietnam's economy, the world's fastest growing after China, is forecast to grow up to 17% per year, driving the government to plan the construction of 60 additional plants by 2020.
BP and its partners plan to build more gas pipeline systems worth US$2 billion to carry natural gas ashore.
In its plan submitted to the Ministry of Industry, BP Vietnam said it and partners planned to invest up to $2 billion for a major investment expansion in gas and power development in Vietnam over the next decade.
The pipeline system off Vietnam's south coast is to deliver gas to power plants onshore from two new gas fields, Moc Tinh and Hai Thach in the Nam Con Son basin.
The scheme also comprised the development of a power plant in Nhon Trach in southern Dong Nai Province.
The new project targets to increase the gas supply capacity to meet the high demand on gas production in the country between now and 2010, and the next 10 years.
BP is the operator of Vietnam's only operational pipeline, Nam Con Son, which carries 13.2 million cu.m of gas a day from the offshore Lan Tay-Lan Do gas field to feed the Phu My power complex in the Ba Ria – Vung Tau, a fertilizer plant and a liquefied gas factory.
Hai Thach and Moc Tinh gas fields were discovered in 1996 with total recoverable reserves of about 31 billion cu.m.
Last year, BP, PetroVietnam and EVN inked a strategic agreement to harmonize the development of gas-fired power plants in Nhon Trach power complex with the provision of fuel gas from Blocks 5.2 and 5.3, which are home to two gas fields.
Source: Thanh Nien
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