'Ultimatum' regarding $2.2 billion power project in Quang Ninh

Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee has just sent a notice to Cua Ong Ward People's Committee about the site for the LNG Power Plant project after Vice Chairman of Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee - Le Van Anh directly inspected the site for the project.

Accordingly, the Vice Chairman of the Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee affirmed that site clearance problems are the main reason for the project's slow progress. If not resolved promptly, the project's target of generating electricity by 2028 is at risk of being affected.

Quang Ninh Province directed the People's Committee of Cua Ong Ward to review all boundaries, areas, land types, and assets attached to the land, and then develop a compensation and resettlement support plan in accordance with regulations. The ward government also needs to coordinate with the Fatherland Front Committee to organize mobilization, dialogue, and convince the people.

In case of failure to reach consensus, the People's Committee of Cua Ong Ward will develop a plan to enforce land recovery, ensuring compliance with legal procedures and completing the handover of 25 hectares of phase 1 before September 30, 2025 to the investor.

Perspective of Quang Ninh LNG Power Plant project in Cua Ong ward.

Quang Ninh province also requested Quang Ninh LNG Power Joint Stock Company to urgently deposit a guarantee fund for project implementation, complete the application for land allocation, land lease and sea area allocation according to regulations. This will be the basis for implementing the following legal procedures, including sea encroachment activities.

The investor is also asked to study additional support options for the people outside the compensation framework (not included in the project investment costs), in order to create a higher consensus. After receiving the site, the enterprise must quickly complete legal procedures to be ready to start construction, striving to put the project into operation as planned in 2028.

The Provincial People's Committee affirmed that accelerating site clearance is a key task in the current phase, aiming to remove the biggest bottleneck of the project. Completing the project on schedule will help ensure a clean and stable energy supply and make an important contribution to the country's sustainable economic development.

The Quang Ninh LNG power plant has a total investment of about 2.2 billion USD, invested by the PV Power - Colavi - Tokyo Gas - Marubeni consortium. This is one of the key projects under the Power Plan VIII, which the Government expects to contribute to ensuring national energy security.

The project has a scale of 1,500 MW, using combined cycle gas turbine technology, with a 500 kV distribution yard and a synchronous technical infrastructure system such as LNG import terminal, storage, regasification area, transportation pipeline, water channel, traffic road and many other auxiliary items.

The total area of the project is more than 55 hectares, including 42 hectares of land and 13 hectares of water surface in Cua Ong Ward, Cam Pha City. However, despite starting in October 2021, progress is still slow due to difficulties in site clearance.

Phase 1 of the project required the clearance of more than 25 hectares, but some households have not yet handed over the land. Phase 2, with an area of more than 15 hectares, also saw a situation where people did not cooperate in the inventory, forcing the government to conduct a compulsory inventory.

In addition, nearly 14 hectares of land that was temporarily assigned to the Vietnam National Coal - Mineral Industries Group but expired in 2011 have not been completely resolved. Currently, this area is directly managed by 8 households, causing difficulties in identifying the legal users for recovery.