Vietnam has given the green light for US-based ExxonMobil to develop a $5.09-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the port city of Hai Phong.
A report by Reuters and was picked up by oilprice.com said on Friday that ExxonMobil secured the go-signal of the people’s committee of Hai Phong for a new power generator that was expected to go fully operational by 2026.
Once complete, the LNG will have an initial capacity of 2.25 gigawatts (GW) and will double to 4.5 GW by 2029.
Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that the government welcomed ExxonMobil’s plans to invest in the country’s oil sector.
ExxonMobil was bullish on investments in LNG projects globally, with its president expecting that demand for natural gas will increase steadily for several decades supported by projected growth in the Asian economy.
“While the world continues to grapple with the severe impacts of market demand and the impact of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease-2019), long-term fundamentals remain [strongly] supported by growing population and energy demand,” ExxonMobil LNG Market Development Inc. President Irtiza Sayyed was quoted as saying in an LNG forum held virtually.
Apart from the LNG, the company was also looking at developing a 3-GW gas-fired power complex in the Mekong Delta province of Long An as well as jointly exploring crude oil on the Payara offshore field in Guyana.
According to Exxon, it expected Paraya to yield up to 220,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude when commercial production begins in the next four years. This would so far be its third offshore development project following the Stabroek block and Liza projects.
Exxon explored Stabroek block with fellow US-based Hess Corp. and resulted in 18 discoveries with a combined potential to produce up to 750,000 bpd of crude.
Meanwhile, the Liza project was already in partial operations, with the first phase already producing while the second phase scheduled in 2022. Once complete, the Liza project was expected to generate some 220,000 bpd of crude.
Such a rate of production would put Vietnam into quite a large player on the global oil market.
PHOTO BY SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD/FLICKR
