Breaking the deadlock in Vietnam

The South Asian tiger economy desperately needs power. But new capacity is notoriously slow to emerge

As many as eight projects are jockeying to use seaborne imports of gas to fire generation required to meet soaring power demand in Vietnam, making the Southeast Asian nation potentially one of the hottest LNG-to-power prospects globally. But translating this potential into reality is another matter.    Two factors have further increased Vietnam’s appeal, Mangesh Patankar, director, gas & LNG consulting at intelligence firm Wood Mackenzie, told Petroleum Economist’s LNG to Power APAC virtual forum in late October. One is the US-China tariff war, which has seen companies wanting to move certain parts of their manufacturing bases out of China increasingly looking at Vietnam. Second has been