Foreign firms eye Vietnam’s energy industry
Vietnam has emerged in SE Asia as an important energy, natural oil and gas producer. Ranked fifth in the region in oil & gas production and oil reserves, Vietnam has discovered 100 potential oil fields with estimated total reserves of 643 million tons of oil and 644 billion cubic meters of gas.
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Impressive growth
PetroVietnam, the national oil & gas group, stated it is trying to increase oil & gas reserves by 35-45 million tons of equivalent oil by accelerating exploitation and exploration of oil fields offshores, and seeking capital to fund mid- and downstream projects. It is estimated that the group needs VND782 trillion worth of capital in 2016-2020.
Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) had a prosperous year 2017, while the Ministry of Industry and Trade made public the list of power generators that will join the competitive electricity market in 2018.
Stuart Broadley, CEO of EIC UK, commented that opportunities are great and backed by an investor-friendly government.
Electricity consumption had a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 12 percent in 2006-2016, almost double the GDP growth rate.
Under the power generation development program, electricity consumption would grow by 10-11 percent with an assumption of a GDP growth rate of 7 percent per annum.
According to FPT Securities, the world’s gas industry is entering a stable development stage with the annual growth rate of 2.5 percent in 2000-2016.
It is expected that natural gas demand in the world would keep growing by 2.1 percent per annum in 2016-2020.
Vietnam’s gas industry has witnessed impressive growth over the last few years with many offshore gas pipeline projects, along with the construction of gas-electricity-fertilizer complexes and gas treatment facilities on the mainland.
In 2011-2016, the CAGR of Vietnam’s gas industry was 4 percent, higher than the world’s growth rate.
High growth is believed to continue in 2016-2025, encouraged by a 7.6 percent increase in the demand for LPG for civil use.
The implementation of the gas-fired thermopower development plan will be accelerated with the electricity output expected to increase by twofold in 2015-2025 to 15 GW.
Vietnam now consumes 10.7 billion cubic meters of gas a year. Lan Tay-Lan Do, the biggest gas field, is expected to be fully exploited in the next few years. Vietnam will have gas supply from two new fields – Phong Lan Dai and Su Tu Trang.
