LNG

PetroVietnam Gas said it was making progress with plans to raise investments for infrastructure for importing, storing and distributing liquefied natural gas nationwide and the start-up of LNG imports is just a year away .

A board meeting of PV Gas said that each region of the southeast Asian nation would have one of three proposed LNG hubs.

These are the Thi Vai LNG storage and regasification terminal in the South, the Son My LNG storage and regas facility in the central region and a large storage and regas hub icovering Quang Ninh, Hai Phong and Thanh Hoa in the North.

PV Gas said the aim was to begin importing LNG cargoes by 2022 as the company explained that its own domestic natural gas production has declined.

The state-owned energy firm said that currently, there was a focus on the construction of an import terminal and storage with a capacity of one million tonnes of LNG per annum in Thi Vai. PV Gas said the Thi Vai LNG project is about 90 percent complete.

“It is expected to be put into operation in the third quarter of 2022 and other infrastucture, including an LNG jetty for tankers in Thi Vai, are also being worked on,” said PV Gas in a statement.

The company said it was focusing on preparing short and medium-term LNG import agreements.

US agreement

PV GAS and US-based AES Corp, have a joint venture agreement on the establishment and operation of the central region’s Son My LNG port and storage hub.

PetroVietnam signed an agreement with AES in September 2021 to form a joint venture for a $1.3Bln LNG terminal linked to a power project at Son My, located in Binh Thuan province.

AES, based in Arlington, Virginia, is an experienced LNG industry participant, having set up Caribbean LNG imports for the Dominican Republic way back in 2003 with the facility at Punta Caucedo operated by its subsidiary AES Andres.

AES was also behind the debut of Panama as an LNG importer with its Costa Norte project in operation since 2018.

Vietnam is developing up to six LNG import projects backed by power plant developments along its coast from the northern port of Haiphong to the ports in the South.

PV Gas, whose headquarters are in Ho Chi Minh City, became one of several Vietnamese businesses with a market capitalisation approaching US$10 billion as the stock price has risen by 48 percent since the beginning of 2021.

It hit a record at 125,000 Vietnamese dong per share in October.

However, the shares have since dropped to 118,900 dong per share, giving the company a current market capitalization of 22,605 trillion dong (US$8.72Bln).

In the last quarter, PV Gas posted consolidated profits after tax of 2.46 trillion dong ($95.3 million).

There are two official stock exchanges in Vietnam, one called the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) and the second is the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX).

Securities of unlisted public companies may be registered to be traded on the regulated over-the-counter (OTC) market on the Hanoi Stock Exchange.

The number of listings on each exchange is about 380 as of the start of 2021.

The Government has already approved a plan to set up the Vietnam Stock Exchange (VSE) based on the consolidation of the HOSE and the HNX.

The VSE will be a 100 percent state-owned limited liability company.