News Room - Business/Economics

Posted on 19 Nov 2007

Thailand’s SCG plans to pump billions into oil refinery at Long Son complex

The Thai Siam Cement Group (SCG) tabled its plans to pump around US$3.7 billion into an oil refinery at Long Son Petro-chemical Complex at a recent meeting between Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and the firm’s president Kan Trakulhoon.

 

SCG media executive Dinh Do Phu yesterday said the project had received support from the Prime Minister.

 

"SCG has already reached agreement with the local leading company PetroVietnam (Viet Nam Oil and Gas Group) to jointly carry out feasibility research for the project," Phu said. After completing the feasibility studies, the joint venture plans to submit more comprehensive project plans to the Government for approval, said Phu.

 

"Some $3.7 billion is set aside in the fund that SCG has earmarked for the project, while the counter capital from PetroVietnam is not known as we are planning further talks with each other," he said.

 

PetroVietnam’s chairman Dinh La Thang refused to elaborate on the issue during an interview yesterday.

 

However, he has said before that in case it was not easy to reach agreement with overseas partners to realise the Long Son Complex, PetroVietnam would raise money from its ownership capital and local resources, especially via the effective stock market channel.

 

Long Son Complex, which is located in southern Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province, is one of three large oil refinery projects in Viet Nam that need huge investment capital. The two others are Dung Quat oil refinery in central Quang Ngai Province and Nghi Son in central Thanh Hoa Province.

 

Thai-based SCG, one of Thailand’s three biggest industrial groups, was founded in 1913 and the holding group started to tap into Viet Nam in 1992. Since then they have set up two representative offices in HCM City and Ha Noi and operate mainly in the petro-chemical, paper and construction materials industries.