Delta Offshore Energy (DOE) recently joined a government working meeting in Bac Lieu Province with a delegation of national stakeholder representatives from Hanoi led by Hoang Quoc Vuong, Vice Minister of Ministry of Industry and Trade and Vice Chairman of the National Steering Committee on Energy Development. The meeting was co-chaired with Duong Thanh Trung, Chairman of the Bac Lieu Province People’s Committee.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Bac Lieu LNG-to-power project’s timelines with a particular focus on completing the power purchase agreement (PPA), including grid interconnection agreement by the end of this year 2020. DOE presented updates and progress of the project, as well as stressing the urgency of aligning the PPA discussions immediately, in order to facilitate its signing by October 2020.
Vietnam’s continued growth in power consumption has created a need for greater power supply. COVID-19 has impacted the project plans of many energy projects in Vietnam, thus the Bac Lieu LNG-to-power project is a significant pillar contributing to energy security, not only for the Bac Lieu Province and the Mekong Delta, but southern Vietnam as a whole.
The meeting concluded with the participants agreeing to jointly cooperate on a new pilot model under the principles of a private sector initiative, in order to fast track key approvals and agreements of the concession. This demand-driven approach places the investor in the driver’s seat in terms of proposing the project’s terms, including furnishing its own offtake concession agreements, such as the PPA. The Government of Vietnam has requested that DOE submit its PPA Heads of Terms (HOT) proposal as soon as possible. This fast track pilot model allows DOE to begin discussions directly with EVN, the State Owned Entity utility company, concurrent with the completion of the feasibility study.
