Groundbreaking ceremony Southern Petrochemical Complex (LSP) on the morning of February 24, 2018 in Long Son commune, Vung Tau city, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province with the attendance of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, leaders of Ba Ria Vung Tau province, representatives of PetroVietnam (LSP) PVN) and SCG Group – the main investor of the project.
This is a project located in Long Son Petroleum Industrial Park (Ba Ria-Vung Tau) invested by Long Son Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (a joint venture between Thailand’s SCG Group and Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group – PVN) on an area of about 464ha and 194ha of water surface for seaport with a total initial investment of about 3.77 billion USD, but now it has increased to 5.4 billion USD.
This is also the first fully integrated petrochemical complex in Vietnam with a capacity of olefin products of about 1.6 million tons/year and other materials such as polyethylene, ploypropylene, with a capacity of more than 2 million tons/year; aimed at replacing polyolefins products that are currently imported.
Mr. Nguyen Van Trinh, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ba Ria – Vung Tau province, said that once completed and put into operation, the project will create great spillovers for the development of the petrochemical industry and other industries. downstream such as automobiles, electronics, electrical equipment, packaging and other service industries of Ba Ria – Vung Tau province and the southern key economic region.
The project is expected to create jobs for about 20,000 workers during construction, contribute to the annual budget of about 60 million USD and attract, train and employ more than 1,000 highly skilled workers.
Mr. Roongrote Rangsiyopash, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SCG said the Southern Petrochemical Complex is a key project in the Group’s strategy to expand to the ASEAN region, in which, Vietnam is one of the strategic countries; believes that the project will encourage long-term investment in relevant industries in the value chain as well as raise the standard of product competitiveness, thereby reducing the need to import petrochemical products.
The initial investors in this project are SCG and two Vietnamese state-owned companies, PetroVietnam and Vietnam Chemical Corporation (Vinachem), in which the Thai Group is the largest investor.
In 2008, SCG Group, PVN and Qatar Petroleum International started the Long Son petrochemical complex project. However, due to the sharp decline in global oil prices in 2014, Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) withdrew from the project.
Then, at the end of March 2017, SCG bought back all of QPI’s contributed capital, bringing the total number of shares SCG owns in the project from 46% to 71%.
Meanwhile, in 2014, Vinachem also left the project and transferred 11% stake to PVN. Accordingly, PVN currently owns 29% of the shares.
SCG has invested in Vietnam since 1992 with many fields such as cement, building materials, petrochemicals and packaging. Currently, this group has 23 subsidiaries operating in Vietnam with about 8,300 employees.
One of the big deals in Vietnam is buying Buu Long Cement Factory in Dong Nai and buying 85% shares of Prime Group Joint Stock Company (Vietnam) for nearly $5 trillion at the end of 2012.