MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vietnam's Binh Dinh refinery project has been further delayed by at least six months, after key investors PTT Plc and Saudi Aramco postponed their investment decision by up to June 2016, reported TPS with reference to local media.
Provincial authorities confirmed that project permission will not be possible in the first half of the year, Nhon Hoi Economic Zone deputy chief Nguyen Ngoc Toan told Vietnam's Bao Dau Tu news.
Thailand's PTT has been planning to build a $22 billion refinery in the central Vietnamese province of Binh Dinh since 2013. The facility was slated to be one of Southeast Asia's largest, with a capacity of 400,000 b/day.
"We have started working with investors who have hired experts, such as the Vietnam Petroleum Institute, to study and re-evaluate the project. This is because oil prices in world markets fell too sharply," Toan said.
PTT and its investment partner, Saudi Arabia's Saudi Aramco, requested for an extention of its confirmation deadline to June 2016 before confirming its project.
The project was originally due to kick-off Q2 2015, before being postponed to H2 2015. As of January 2016, PTT and Saudi Aramco have not formally applied for an investment certificate for the project.
PTT and Saudi Aramco did not proceed with its investment in 2015 as a local partner was lacking -- talks with Vietnam's national oil and gas group PetroVietnam, and another local major, Petrolimex, did not bear fruit.
"PTT did not prioritize finding local partners, but was focused on Saudi Aramco," Toan added.
The Binh Dinh refinery project faced strong opposition from PetroVietnam, which insisted that the refinery with a designed capacity of 400,000 barrels per day would create an oversupply in Vietnam.
As MRC wrote before, Russian petrochemical company SamaraNefteOrgSintez (Sanors) had shown interest in Thai PTT's mega refining and petrochemical project in Vietnam's Binh Dinh province.
MRC