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| Vietnam's Nam Con Son Gas Project Details |
26th November 2002, Reuters, Hanoi, Vietnam |
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Vietnam expects its first commercial gas flows from the southern $1.3 billion Nam Con Son project on Tuesday, the biggest foreign investment in the communist-run country.
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Following are some details on the project:
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HISTORY
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 In the late 1980s, India's ONGC-Videsh Ltd, British BP Plc and Norway's Statoil embarked on an exploration programme in the Nam Con Son basin, located some 360 km (224 miles) off the southern coast of Vietnam.
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In late 1992 they discovered the Lan Do gas field in the licensed Block 6.1. A year later, the Lan Tay gas field was found nearby.
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At the end of 2001, Statoil decided to withdraw from the Nam Con Son gas project as Asia was no longer its area of interest, selling its shares to BP, state oil monopoly Petrovietnam and others.
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A combination of block 6.1, the Nam Con Son pipeline and Phu My 3 power plant which will use the gas total $1.3 billion in investments.
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OWNERSHIP
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Block 6.1: BP 35%, ONGC 45% and Petrovietnam 20%
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Nam Con Son pipeline: BP 32.67%, US-based ConocoPhillips 16.33% and Petrovietnam 51%
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Phu My 3 power plant: BP, Singapore's Sembcorp Industries Ltd and Japan's Kyushu Electric each have 33.33% stake.
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PRODUCTION AND USE
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The Lan Tay and Lan Do fields are capable of producing approximately three billion cubic metres per year, and are expected to be in commercial production for at least 20 years.
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Development of the gas resource called for an integrated plan encompassing gas production, gas transportation and power generation, collectively known as the Nam Con Son gas project.
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A number of power stations southeast of Ho Chi Minh City will use the gas produced from the basin. One of those, Phu My 3, is to be built by BP and partners with a capacity of 715 megawatts. A urea plant to be built by Petrovietnam will also be located at the Phu My complex.
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The partners in the Nam Con Son gas project are constructing a pipeline to transport the gas from the production platform at Lan Tay, 362 km to shore, and then 37 km to the power stations and urea plant at Phy My. The 399-km pipeline is the longest two-phase (gas and liquid together) pipeline in the world.
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IMPACT
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The development of Block 6.1 will enable the generation of some 12 billion kilowatt hours of electricity every year, equivalent to about 40 percent of current national demand thus alleviating potential power shortages.
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OUTLOOK
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With the country's economic growth rate averaging seven percent annually, total end-use of energy supply is estimated to jump threefold by 2010. Electricity generation will double over the next decade. Petroleum demand will also double to around 22-25 million tonnes per annum and natural gas use grow from negligible levels to 7.5 billion cubic metres per year.
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Vietnam's current power transmission and distribution losses are at extremely high levels of around 15 percent, the World Bank says.
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Sources: BP, World Bank
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