Vietnam’s $1.4 Billion LNG Thermal Power Plant Project: Delayed and Losing Money

On May 9, it was announced at a meeting on the progress of the Nhon Trach 3 and 4 Dong Nai Thermal Power Plant project that these plants are facing significant financial losses due to schedule delays. The project, with an investment of 1.4 billion USD, is the first thermal power project in Vietnam to use liquefied natural gas (LNG) and has a capacity of 1,624 MW. According to the national energy plan approved by the Prime Minister in 2019, Nhon Trach 3 is expected to start test electricity generation in May and commercial operation in November, while Nhon Trach 4 is set to operate in May 2025. However, the overall progress of the project is only at about 85%.

Despite already disbursing about 30,000 billion VND and paying daily interest payments of about 6-7 billion VND due to an average loan interest rate of 8% per year, the slow progress of the project has resulted in Dong Nai province losing revenue of