Top Thai energy firm PTT Pcl has completed its feasibility study on a mammoth refinery and petrochemical complex in Vietnam, including the presence of a new partner from Saudi Arabia, a Vietnamese official said Friday.

PTT has made some changes to the feasibility report on the oil complex, to be located at the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone in the south-central province of Binh Dinh, according to the provincial chairman, Le Huu Loc.

The design capacity of the facility was reduced to 400,000 barrels of oil products per day, or 20 million tons a year, down from the original 660,000 a day in the previous report, Loc said.

The estimated investment for the complex was also lowered to US$22 billion from $28.5 billion.

The reductions in capacity and investment are intended to increase the economic effectiveness of the project, the province’s chairman said, citing an explanation from the Thai state-owned oil and gas behemoth.

The feasibility report also announced that Saudi Arabian national petroleum and natural gas company, Saudi Aramco, has partnered with TPP to implement the megaproject.

Saudi Aramco, officially known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, and PTT seek to develop the first-ever comprehensive, world-class refinery and petrochemical complex in Vietnam.

The complex will consist of an oil refinery capable of producing 12 million tons of oil refined products as per EURO-V standard and 4.9 million tons of petrochemical products a year; an olefin manufacturing plant, producing 1.4 million tons of paraxylene annually; and an ethylene steam cracking plant with an annual capacity of 1.4 million tons.

PTT and the local government of Binh Dinh have submitted the feasibility report to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for assessment and evaluation.

The ministry is expected to examine the report for a month before forwarding it to the government for approval. If everything proceeds as planned, the oil complex could break ground in 2016 and begin production in 2021.

The planned 20 million tons a year capacity of the Nhon Hoi complex is three times the capacity of Dung Quat, the country’s sole operating refinery. The $3 billion Dung Quat Refinery, located in the central province of Quang Ngai, is capable of producing 6.5 million tons of oil products a year.

The country’s second such, the Nghi Son Refinery, is slated to break ground in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa on October 23, while the third one, Vung Ro Petroleum Refinery , broke ground Tuesday in the south-central province of Phu Yen.

Source: Tuoi Tre