PTT and Saudi Aramco to reduce Binh Dinh project size
The national oil companies (NOC) Saudi Aramco from Saudi Arabia and the PTT Public Company Limited (PTT) from Thailand has decided to form a joint venture to build and operate the giant Binh Dinh Refinery and Petrochemical complex in the center of Vietnam.
Despite the construction of a first refinery in Dung Quat in the central province of Quang Ngai with a capacity of 130,000 barrels per day (b/d), Vietnam is struggling to import all the refined and hydrocarbon products to support is booming economical development.
From the current domestic demand of 300,000 barrels per day, the market is expected to grow by 5 to 6 percent per year on the next decade.
Since Dung Quat, the local Authorities are working on several projects of refineries and petrochemical complexes in the north, center and south of the country.
Vietnam economical weight is concentrated in two poles, Ha Noi in the north and Ho Chi Minh in the south.
Therefore all major investments are subject to intense discussion not to favor one region more than another, leading the central provinces to take advantage of the situation.
In this context the Thai petroleum company PTT proposed to invest $28 billion capital expenditure in the Binh Dinh Refinery and Petrochemical complex.
PTT took option to acquire a 2,000 hectare land in the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone (NHEC) of the Binh Dinh Province to build a 660,000 b/d refinery and downstream transformations.
With the development of alternative projects in the north and the south of the country, PTT and its newly joint venture partner Saudi Aramco have decided to scale their Binh Dinh Nhon Hoi refinery down to 400,000 b/d.
PTT and Saudi Aramco completed Binh Dinh feasibility
With this down revised design, the PTT – Saudi Aramco Binh Dinh Refinery and Petrochemical complex will remain anyway among the largest projects in the world with an investment estimated above $22 billion capital expenditure.
In the Binh Dinh Refinery project, the partners will share the working interests in such a way as:
– PTT 40% is the operator
– Saudi Aramco 40%
– Vietnam Government 20%
In addition to the direct interests in the joint venture, Saudi Aramco signed an agreement with his partners to secure the supply of crude oil to the Binh Dinh Refinery.
In addition to the production of EURO V gasoline in the refinery, PTT and Saudi Aramco are planning to add a petrochemical complex of 5 million tonnes per year (t/y) production capacity including:
– 2.9 million t/y of olefin and polyolefins
– 2 million t/y of aromatics
In the revised design, the Binh Dinh ethylene steam cracker and the paraxylene unit will have a capacity of 1.4 million t/y each.
Benefiting from very low costs, PTT and Saudi Aramco are expecting to supply the emerging manufacturing industry and to export this petrochemical products to the neighboring countries.
After completing the feasibility study, PTT and Saudi Aramco are expecting to move into the front end engineering and design (FEED) in 2015 in order to start first shipments from the Binh Dinh Refinery and Petrochemical complex from Vietnam by 2022.
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