Siam Cement Public Co. Ltd. (SCG) subsidiary Long Son Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (LSP) has let a contract to a consortium of SK E&C Co. Ltd., Seoul, and TechnipFMC PLC of France for work on a long-delayed project to build Vietnam’s first petrochemical complex on Long Son Island in Vung Tau City, Ba Ria Province, about 100 km southeast of Ho Chi Minh City (OGJ Online, Oct. 9, 2009).
As part of the $2-billion turnkey contract, to be divided equally with TechnipFMC, SK E&C will provide basic design, detailed design, procurement, construction, and commissioning services for a new 950,000-tonne/year ethylene plant, which will be the largest plant at LSP’s $5.4-billion petrochemical complex, SK E&C said.
While SK E&C did not confirm a definitive date for when it will begin its scope of work under the contract, the service provider said total construction on the project, once initiated, would last 53 months.
Alongside its 950,000-tpy production of ethylene, LSP’s complex also will produce 400,000 tpy of propylene, all of which will be used to help meet Vietnam’s rising demand for petrochemical products as well as help eliminate the country’s current reliance on imports of raw materials, SK E&C said.
This latest contract follows SGC subsidiary Vina SCG Chemicals Co. Ltd.’s (VSCG) early 2017 purchase agreement with Qatar Petroleum International Ltd. (QPI) to acquire all of subsidiary QPI Vietnam Ltd.’s (QPIV) 25% equity stake in the LSP project to increase SGC’s ownership to 71% from its previous 46% stake held through subsidiaries VSCG 28% and Thai Plastic & Chemicals Public Co. Ltd. (TPC) 18% (OGJ Online, Mar. 10, 2017).
The QPIV buyout followed QPI’s 2015 notification to fellow LSP shareholders VSCG, TPC, and Vietnam’s state-owned PetroVietnam and Vinachem 29% of Qatar’s intention to withdraw from the project.
Last year, SCG said it expected to commission the LSP complex sometime in 2021.
As previously proposed, LSP’s complex was to include a 1 million-tpy flexible-feed cracker capable of switching between ethane, propane, and naphtha feedstock to produce about 1.6 million tpy of ethylene depending on the feedstock mix.
To be fully integrated with supporting infrastructure that includes a deep-sea port, jetty, storage installations, power plant, and other utilities, the complex also was to be able to produce 450,000-468,000 tpy of polypropylene, 450,000 tpy of high-density polyethylene, 500,000 tpy of linear low-density polyethylene, and 400 tpy of vinyl chloride monomer.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
