Vietnam’s Long Son contracts for ethane conversion project

Siam Cement PCL (SCG) subsidiary SCG Chemicals PCL’s (SCGC) Long Son Petrochemicals Co. Ltd. (LSP) has let a contract to Technip Energies NV to provide a suite of services for a project to convert an existing naphtha-based steam cracker to ethane feedstock at the operator’s manufacturing complex on Long Son Island in Vung Tau City, Ba Ria Province, about 100 km southeast of Ho Chi Minh City.

Under the early April contract, Technip Energies will deliver engineering and procurement services, site assistance, supply of proprietary burners for the cracker’s furnaces, as well as proprietary ethylene technologies—including its Ultra Selective Conversion (USC) furnace design and Heat-Integrated Rectifier System (HRS)— to improve product selectivity, energy efficiency, and ethylene recovery, the service provider said.

Technip Energies—which previously completed engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services on the original cracker for LSP’s $5.2-billion complex—revealed neither the value nor duration of this latest contract award for work at the site.

Project overview, status

Officially dubbed the LSP enhancement (LSPE) project, the planned modification and upgrading works at the complex specifically will enable the site’s cracker—which currently allows LSP to switch between propane and naphtha feedstock at ratios of 70:30 or 30:70 depending on market conditions—to process increased volumes of low-cost ethane alongside its existing naphtha and propane feedstock slate, according to Technip Energies and SCG.

Intended to improve feedstock efficiency, reduce operating costs, and lower carbon intensity while enhancing operational flexibility amid market volatility, the LSPE project—budgeted at an overall investment of about $500 million—comes as part of SCG’s broader medium-term plan of enhancing production efficiency across its plants in Southeast Asia to both increase their competitiveness and establish the sites as central manufacturing and export hubs for the region, the parent company said in its 2025 annual report published in late-February 2026.

To support the LSPE—which will also involve improvements to other yet-to-be-identified existing machinery and systems at the complex to enable its use of ethane—SCG, to date, confirmed completion of the following:

• SCGC’s execution of a long-term ethane supply and terminal agreement with Enterprise Products Partners LP, under which Enterprise will supply about 1 million tonnes/year (tpy) of US-produced ethane for 15 years on a free-on-board basis.
• SCGC’s entrance into a 15-year long-term time charter agreement with Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd. (MOL) for five very large ethane carriers (VLECs) to carry ethane feedstock from the US to Vietnam.
• LSP’s award of a contract to a consortium of China Tianchen Engineering Corp. and PetroVietnam Technical Service Corp. for delivery of EPC on two highly specialized cryogenic ethane storage tanks at LSP’s complex. Designed for full containment via outer concrete walls and roofs, as well as inner linings with special-grade metal requiring a temperature as low as -90° C., each of the tanks will have a storage capacity of about 55,000 tonnes.

Alongside cutting feedstock costs and improving production flexibility at LSP’s complex, the LSPE’s increased use of lower-carbon ethane feedstock is also anticipated to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the manufacturing site from current levels by about 200,000 tpy, SCG said.

Based on SCG’s most recent update in February 2026, the LSPE is targeted for formal completion and startup in 2027.

Formally commissioned in 2024, LSP’s petrochemical complex currently produces:

• Ethylene; 950,000 tpy.
• Propylene; 400,000 tpy.
• High density polyethylene (HDPE); 500,000 tpy.
• Linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE); 500,000 tpy.
• Polypropylene; 400,000 tpy.
• Butadiene; 100,000 tpy.