Siam Cement plans $3.7 billion Vietnam chemical project

HANOI (Reuters) - Siam Cement SCC.BK(SCC), Thailand's top industrial conglomerate, plans to invest $3.7 billion in a major petrochemical complex in southern Vietnam, state media reported on Monday.

The complex is to be built in Long Son in the oil hub province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, adjacent to the site of Vietnam's third, and possibly its biggest oil refinery, the Vietnam Investment Review weekly quoted SCC Chief Executive Kan Trakulhoon as saying.

Trakulhoon who presented the project to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last week said it had received support from the Vietnamese government.

If approved, the project would be completed by 2013, he said.

Hanoi has yet to pick investors for the 240,000-barrel-per-day Long Son refinery, which has attracted strong interest from foreign firms because of its proximity to the main consumption centers including the Mekong delta and industrial parks around Ho Chi Minh City.

State oil Petrovietnam is building Dung Quat refinery, the country's first, which will come online in early 2009 with a capacity of about 140,000 bpd.

It is also planning another refinery, Nghi Son, in the country's north with a capacity of about 170,000 bpd, as the government aims to be oil product self-sufficient by 2015.

(Reporting by Nguyen Nhat Lam, editing by Jacqueline Wong)