Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- GS Energy, an energy company in South Korea, agreed with VinaCapital, a leading investment management and real estate development firm in Vietnam, to build a natural gas-fueled power plant capable of producing 3GW of electricity in the Southeast Asian country, which has stepped up the construction of power plants to ease its perennial energy shortfall.

GS Energy said Thursday that a memorandum of understanding was signed in Seoul on the construction of a combined cycle power plant in southern Vietnam. The South Korean company will push for a power purchase agreement with Vietnam's state-owned power company to sell electricity in a stable manner. GS Energy will also store LNG and operates facilities.

With a population of 96 million and annual gross domestic product growth of about seven percent, Vietnam faces growing power shortages. The Vietnamese government is actively attracting global energy companies into the buildup of energy infrastructure. GS Energy has tried to set up an LNG value chain as it seeks energy projects in Southeast Asia. Vietnam will be used as the bridgehead for GS
Energy's advance into other Southeast Asian countries.

To increase the use of LNG as fuel, PetroVietnam, a state-owned energy company, has announced plans to build LNG power terminals. The first one in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province can import up to one million tons of gas a year when the first phase of construction ends in the third quarter of 2022.