Vietnam’s coal exports, peaking at 25mt in 2009, have been increasingly redirected to the domestic market as demand for energy has exploded.
Exploitation of abundant reserves of offshore natural gas has been hampered by commercial wrangling and infighting while Vietnam’s first nuclear power plants aren’t expected to go online until at least 2020.
PV Power Coal, a unit of state oil and energy firm Petrovietnam, has signed a framework pact with Australia’s Ensham Resources, to import around 3mtpa of thermal coal to feed two large coal-fired power plants under construction in southern Vietnam, Petrovietnam told the News Media’s WSJ.
The two 1,200MW plants will each require 3.2mtpa of coal and are scheduled to start generating power in 2015 and 2016.
The nation’s sole coal producer, Vinacomin, revealed it will slash coal exports to between 4mtpa and 5mtpa by 2015 from 14.5mtpa level achieved last year as a way of preserving coal fuelstock for local power plants. It expects to mine 43mt of coal this year.
WSJ said the Asian Development Bank reports Vietnam’s electricity demand is expected to rise by 14% pa during 2011-2015 and by 11% pa during 2016-2020.
Vietnam already imports small amounts of coal from Indonesia as Vinacomin maintains it is cheaper to do this than transport it from the northern province of Quang Ninh, the country’s key coal production area.
Vietnam plans to use a lot more natural gas to make electricity, but hold-ups and commercial bickering is keeping progress down to a snail’s pace.
The fast-expanding nation plans to raise its total installed power-generating capacity to 75GW by 2020, up from 21GW in 2010, with coal-fired plants generating about 50%, hydropower 23% and gas-fired plants 16.5%.
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