Project Profile
Value: US$22 billion (capital expenditure)
Location: Nhon Hoi Economic Zone (NHEC), Binh Dinh province, centre of Vietnam
Capacity: 400,000 b/d
Ethylene steam cracker capacity: 1.4 million t/y
Paraxylene unit capacity: 1.4 million t/y
Start-up Year: 2021
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 centre 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. In this context PTT proposed to invest US$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. 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 USD$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% (pulled out of the JV in July, 2016)
- 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 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.
Project Plans Terminated
In June 2016 the government of Binh Dinh Province decided to terminate the Victory oil refinery and petrochemical project. The province had decided to walk away from the long-awaited project capitalized at US$22 billion.
PTT Public Company Limited (PTT) transferred the project to its 38.5%-owned affiliate IRPC. (July, 2016)
Operators:
PTT Public Company Limited (PTT): Operator with 40% interest
Saudi Aramco: 40% interest (pulled out of the JV in July, 2016)
Vietnam Government: 20% interest
Contractors:
Subcontractors: