New impetus for the oil and gas industry

The oil and gas industry and offshore wind power have high similarities as they both exploit offshore resources and are closely related to security, sovereignty over islands and exclusive economic zones.

Vietnam aims to have offshore wind power capacity serving domestic electricity demand of about 6,000 MW by 2030.

The trend is irreversible.

Faced with urgent demands to combat climate change, the world is witnessing a strong shift towards renewable energy development to gradually replace fossil energy sources. Offshore wind power has also emerged as one of the areas with the greatest potential for development.

Large oil and gas corporations such as Equinor, Shell, Repsol, Total, BP, Chevron, CNOC... have been spending tens of billions of dollars on renewable energy development programs, including a large amount on offshore wind power to gradually reduce their portfolio of fossil energy projects.

For example, Orsted (Denmark) has completely shifted to renewable energy projects, currently installing about 9,000 MW of offshore wind power and aiming to reach 50,000 MW of installed capacity by 2030. Equinor (Norway) has also gradually reduced the proportion of oil and gas and gradually increased the proportion of renewable energy, currently has nearly 12,000 MW of offshore wind power under development, of which some projects have been put into operation.

In Southeast Asia, the Malaysian National Oil and Gas Group (Petronas) established Gentari Renewable Energy Company and purchased a 29.4% stake in the Hai Long Offshore Wind Power Project in Taiwan (China).

Vietnam, with its high economic openness and global integration, has set goals and developed plans to develop the offshore wind power industry. Accordingly, by 2030, the offshore wind power capacity serving domestic electricity demand will reach about 6,000 MW and the scale can be increased further in the case of rapid technology development, reasonable electricity prices and transmission costs.

The development of offshore wind power also contributes to ensuring national energy security, reducing fossil fuel imports, while creating many new jobs, promoting the development of the marine economy, as well as developing energy industry infrastructure, making an important contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector in Vietnam.

Create new space

In order to develop offshore wind power on a large scale, multinational oil and gas corporations play a very important role. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the oil and gas industry, with its experience in implementing offshore projects, will contribute to sharing supply chains and technology. The participation of oil and gas corporations will play an important role in turning offshore wind power into a major industry soon.

Petrovietnam is striving to promote all available advantages to participate in the supply chain and develop offshore wind power projects in Vietnam, increase the localization rate of equipment, reduce electricity production costs to create a premise for developing hydrogen energy in the future.

- Dr. Le Manh Hung, Chairman of Petrovietnam Board of Directors

Dr. Nguyen Quoc Thap, Chairman of the Vietnam Petroleum Association, said that experience in exploration, exploitation, design, construction and manufacture of marine works, offshore services, facilities, human resources, information and understanding of meteorology, hydrology, geology, marine chemistry, etc. are favorable conditions for enterprises in the oil and gas industry to participate in the offshore wind power sector. This also contributes to optimizing investment, avoiding waste of national resources, increasing efficiency, and reducing production costs.

Sharing the same view, Dr. Ngo Duc Lam, former Deputy Director of the Institute of Energy (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that currently, the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) and the Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) are capable of piloting the development of offshore wind power projects. Petrovietnam is a state-owned enterprise with great potential, prestige, and experience in the energy sector, especially offshore oil and gas; has technology, and the ability to arrange capital more conveniently than other enterprises.

Since 2019, Petrovietnam units such as the Vietnam - Russia Joint Venture Vietsovpetro, Vietnam Petroleum Technical Services Corporation (PTSC) ... have signed memorandums of understanding, confidentiality agreements, bilateral cooperation, survey/service provision contracts with offshore wind power investors around the world. Petrovietnam has received many proposals from large corporations in the world such as Equinor, Orsted, CIP, Macquarie ... to cooperate in developing offshore wind power projects in Vietnam.

Petrovietnam also signed a memorandum of understanding with Equinor and CIP (Denmark) to study opportunities for developing offshore wind power and other clean energy sources in Vietnam.

In the past 3 years, PTSC has quickly joined the offshore wind power value chain. To date, PTSC has won bids for more than 10 offshore wind power projects with a total generating capacity of 5.2 GW, a total contract value of more than 1.2 billion USD, providing most of the service stages for offshore wind power projects, including survey, design, procurement, construction, transportation, installation, operation, maintenance and repair. 100% are export projects, creating direct jobs for more than 4,000 workers.

In particular, PTSC has been coordinating with Sembcorp Group (Singapore) to implement the first steps in cooperation to invest in an offshore wind farm in Vietnam with an initial expected capacity of 2.3 GW, exporting electricity directly to Singapore via a high-voltage submarine cable across the sea...

This project has been granted a license by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Vietnam for PTSC to carry out monitoring, investigation, survey and assessment of marine resources. At the same time, PTSC's partner Sembcorp has been granted a letter of intent by the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore to approve this project.

As soon as the authorities support, create a legal corridor, promptly approve and allow to conduct surveys, exploit the sea area and export electricity, PTSC will soon launch the project to be able to have commercial electricity before 2035.

To prepare resources for the offshore renewable energy race, Petrovietnam's key units in design, manufacture, construction and operation of offshore oil and gas projects such as PTSC, Vietsovpetro, and Petroleum Construction Joint Stock Corporation (PETROCONs) have been assigned to research and establish a renewable energy value chain development consortium; with available capacity, experience, and infrastructure, enhance cooperation, promote each other's capacity, and coordinate to seek opportunities to participate in offshore renewable energy projects at home and abroad.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/dien-gio-ngoai-khoi-dong-luc-moi-cho-nganh-dau-khi-d223878.html