The administration of Binh Dinh Province in central Vietnam has called on the Ministry of Industry and Trade to ask Petrolimex to hold a stake in a Thai company's megaproject to build an oil complex, reportedly worth US$22 billion and planned to begin in 2016, in the province.

Petrolimex, the country’s largest fuel wholesaler, can consider the value of ownership in the oil complex, to be located in the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone, based on their financial ability, the Binh Dinh government said in a report submitted to the industry ministry.

The Hanoi-based fuel wholesaler should also be assigned to distribute products from the facility once it is commissioned, the report reads.

The project developer, Thai energy firm PTT Pcl, has completed an investment plan and its board of directors has also given in-principle approval for the investment, according to the Binh Dinh administration.

At first, PTT announced that total investment for the complex, consisting of an oil refinery, an olefin manufacturing plant, and an ethylene steam cracking plant, could be as high as $28.5 billion.

But the Thai energy firm said in mid-April that it had made changes to the plan, including lowering the estimated investment to $22 billion.

The design capacity of the facility was also reduced to 400,000 barrels of oil products per day, or roughly 20 million tons a year, down from the original 660,000 a day in an old report.

PTT has selected well-known global firms to provide consultancy for the project.

American management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, Inc. will be the strategic consultant, while Switzerland-based global engineering conglomerate Foster Wheeler will supply technical and design consultancy.

The Environment Institute under the Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City will be in charge of environmental studies.

The oil refinery of the complex is expected to be capable of producing 12 million tons of refined oil products up to EURO-V standards, and 4.9 million tons of petrochemical products a year.

The expected production capacity of the olefin plant and the ethylene steam cracking component is 1.4 million tons of paraxylene and 1.4 million tons of ethylene per annum, respectively.

PTT also said in the project’s feasibility report that it had partnered with Saudi Arabian national petroleum and natural gas company, Saudi Aramco, to implement the megaproject.

Saudi Aramco, officially known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, and PTT seek to develop the first-ever comprehensive, world-class refinery and petrochemical complex in Vietnam, according to the Thai company.

If everything proceeds as planned, the oil complex could break ground in 2016 and begin production in 2021.

The planned 20 million tons a year capacity of the Nhon Hoi complex is three times the capacity of Dung Quat, the Southeast Asian country’s sole operating refinery.

The $3 billion Dung Quat Refinery, located in the central province of Quang Ngai, is able to produce 6.5 million tons of oil products a year.

The country’s second such plant, the Nghi Son Refinery, is slated to break ground in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa on October 23, while work already began on the construction of the third, the Vung Ro Petroleum Refinery, on September 9 in the south-central province of Phu Yen.

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