The cost of the Phu Tho ethanol project in northern Vietnam has risen to $128 million, up 60% from the original forecast of $80 million, a source close to state-owned proponent PetroVietnam said Thursday.
“The additional funds will help enhance the construction of the plant, which was initially scheduled to be finished last December but was [delayed] due to the adverse impact of the business environment over the past years,” the source said.
A contractor consortium led by PetroVietnam Construction Corporation and including Sweden’s Alfa Laval and US-based Delta T Corporation began work on the Phu Tho ethanol plant in the Tam Nong district in June 2009. The plant, which is wholly owned by PetroVietnam Oil subsidiary PVB, is expected to produce 100,000 cubic meters (629,000 barrels)/year of ethanol from 35,000 hectares of cassava and sugarcane, according to PetroVietnam Oil. PetroVietnam is currently pursuing the construction of two more 100,000 cu m/year ethanol plants in the country’s central and southern regions.
Work on the $81 million Binh Phuoc ethanol plant in the south, a joint venture between Japan’s Itochu (49%), PetroVietnam Oil (29%) and a local company LICOGI16 (22%), began last March and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year. The $80 million plant in central Vietnam is being built by PetroVietnam and is scheduled to become operational in the first quarter of this year.
A number of smaller ethanol plants are meanwhile being built around the country by companies other than PetroVietnam, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The Vietnamese government approved a biofuel development plan in November 2007, targeting production of 250,000 mt of ethanol and vegetable oil, to meet 1% of the country’s petroleum demand, by 2015. Production of 1.8 million mt, to meet 5% of petroleum demand, is targeted for 2025.
Vietnam began trial sales of gasoline containing 5% ethanol, or gasohol E5, and biodiesel B5 last August in five cities.
