Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Nov. 28 launched an order to kick off construction of a pipeline that brings gas from lot B off the country’s southwestern coast to O Mon district, the Mekong delta city of Can Tho.
The 1 billion USD lot B-O Mon gas pipeline will have a total length of nearly 400 km, with 246 km at sea and 152 km on land, crossing the Can Tho city, and four other Mekong delta provinces of Hau Giang, Kien Giang, Bac Lieu and Ca Mau, according to the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group.
Once completed, the pipeline is capable of transporting 18.3 million cu.m of gas a day (or 6.4 billion cu. m/year), to the O Mon and Tra Noc Power Stations with a combined capacity of 3,000 MW in Can Tho and a 750 MW thermoelectric power plant in Ca Mau province.
Addressing the launch, PM Dung highlighted the pipeline’s profound significance to the Mekong delta in particular and the country in general as it will work to ensure energy security for the nation and particularly pave the way for the national gas pipeline system to link with that in Southeast Asia .
He emphasized that the construction of the lot B-O Mon gas pipeline marks an important milestone in the oil and gas industry’s development cause.
Also on the day, PM Dung paid a working visit to the Mekong delta province of Hau Giang to examine the locality’s socio-economic performance in 2009 and its plan for 2010.
He told the provincial leaders that possessing advantages in rice farming and production, Hau Giang should work to become a leading locality in rice production and consumption.
The PM assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to continue working with Hau Giang to rescreen the planning regarding the locality’s rice growing acreage in order to develop rice processing facilities to secure stable and sustainable rice consumption for local farmers.
The Government leader also pointed out that Hau Giang remains weak in transport infrastructure and education and training so it needs to rally all available resources to invest in the two areas to enable all of its communes to be accessible by road and each commune to have a primary school and a junior high school built in the future.
After nearly five years of re-establishment, Hau Giang posted an estimated GDP growth rate of 12.6 percent in 2009 with per capita income reaching 762 USD.
However, the Mekong delta province is still battling poverty as more than 12 percent of its households are living under the poverty line.
Source: Vietnam+
Source: QDND
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