Rosneft eyes partnership with PTT in VN
Russian Rosneft Oil and Gas Group is reportedly seeking to become a partner of PTT, Thailand's national oil and gas company, in the development of the planned Nhon Hoi refinery complex in Vietnam.
PTT in August formally announced a project to build Nhon Hoi Oil Refinery Complex in Binh Dinh, potentially with the investment of upto US$27 billion. Once completed, it will be one of the largest oil refinery complexes in Asia.
Viet Nam News, a member of the Asia News Network, reported last week that a Russian business delegation, led by Igor Soglayev, general director of Sarvors Company under the Russian Rosneft, went on a fact finding tour in the country. Soglayev said Rosneft had announced its intention to become one of PTT's strategic partners in the project. PTT’s executives could not be reached for confirmation.
Rosneft is now one of the world's leading petroleum groups, with production capacity of 250 million tonnes of oil per year and annual profit of US$2.8 billion.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is scheduled for an official trip to Russia in December.
Viet Nam News reported that Soglayev asked about the transparency of Nhon Hoi Economic Zone's investment incentives, infrastructure, and working conditions. The Russian said that as the project requires huge investment and some 30,000 workers, this would require basic and huge support from the Vietnamese government and the provincial authorities. The project should become operational in 2018, he said.
Soglayev also revealed that Rosneft President Igor Sechin would study more carefully about the project while accompanying Russian President Vladimir Putin on his forthcoming visit to Vietnam.
He was also quoted as saying that the Quy Nhon University had signed a co-operative agreement with Thailand's Songkla University to train workers for the project.
In August, PTT picked US firm McKinsey Company as the consultant for project strategy management while Switzerland’s Foster Wheeler is the consultant for technology and design. IHS Company is the consultant for trade, input crude oil sources and final products.
Sukrit Surabotsopon, senior executive vice president of PTT, said that the group has set up a special team with support of international consultants to conduct a feasibility study for the refinery project from now until May.
Once the feasibility study report wins approval from the government, PTT will move on with front-end engineering design and engineering-procurement- construction to begin the project.
Construction is expected to take five years and the project will be launched into operation in 2020, Sukrit said.
