BAC LIEU / 26 May 2020 – Delta Offshore Energy (“DOE”) joined a government working meeting in Bac Lieu Province with a delegation of national stakeholder representatives from Hanoi led by H.E. 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 H.E. Duong Thanh Trung, Chairman of the Bac Lieu Province People’s Committee.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the project 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 stressed the urgency of aligning the PPA discussions immediately to sign by October this year (2020).
Vietnam’s continued growth in power consumption is in need of power supply. COVID-19 has impacted the project plans of many energy projects in Vietnam thus the Bac Lieu LNG-to-Power project is of significant pillar to energy security for not only Bac Lieu Province and the Mekong Delta but southern Vietnam as a whole.
The conclusion of the meeting was to jointly cooperate on a new pilot model under the principles of a private sector initiative to fast track key approvals and agreements of the concession. This demand-driven approach puts the investor in the driver seat to propose the project terms including furnishing its own offtake concession agreements such as the PPA. The Government of Vietnam has requested DOE to submit its PPA Heads of Terms (“HOT”) proposal as soon as possible. This fast track pilot model allows DOE to begin discussions with EVN, the State-Owned Entity utility company, directly concurrent with the completion of the feasibility study.
The delegation along with DOE also visited the site with the team of local technical consultants led by the Institute of Energy (“IE”) as prime contractor. In March, DOE signed a consulting contract with IE to conduct the grid interconnection report, Feasibility Study and Environmental Impact Assessment. Vietnam’s lockdown ended in April thus enabling survey teams to be dispatched on behalf of the Project.
The delegation from Hanoi that participated in the official meeting included representatives from the key national stakeholders in energy policy. This included senior representatives from the National Steering Committee on Energy Development, Ministry of Industry and Trade (“MOIT”), Ministry of Planning and Investment (“MPI”), Electricity Renewable Energy Agency (“EREA”), the Institute of Energy and Electricity Vietnam (“EVN”).
Local Press Coverage:
Ministry of Industry and Trade: Electricity and Gas LNG Bac Lieu should avoid the situation like BOTs take decades to prepare
Ministry of Industry and Trade: Joining hands to find solutions to promote the progress of Bac Lieu LNG gas project
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