Nghe An complex pairs 1.5-gigawatt gas plant with dedicated LNG port; consortium with PV Power and NASU eyes commercial start by December 2030.
SK Innovation broke ground Tuesday on a 3.3-trillion-won ($2.3 billion) liquefied-natural-gas power complex in Vietnam's Nghe An Province, the Korean refiner's most ambitious overseas infrastructure undertaking disclosed to date and a five-year run-up to a December 2030 commercial start.
The project — a 1.5-gigawatt combined-cycle gas-fired plant paired with a dedicated LNG import terminal and port, roughly 220 kilometers south of Hanoi — is being built by a consortium of SK Innovation, Vietnamese state-linked power producer PV Power and local sugar-and-energy group NASU, three months after the trio secured the development right from the Nghe An provincial government in February.
For SK Innovation — Korea's leading refiner by capacity through its SK Energy subsidiary — the groundbreaking marks a concrete extension beyond domestic crude processing into long-cycle, ex-Korea gas-fired generation, a category the company folded onto its balance sheet only after absorbing former affiliate SK E&S in a 2024 merger.
A five-year construction window
The Nghe An provincial government granted the consortium development rights in February, capping a permitting cycle that began under Vietnam's eighth Power Development Plan (PDP8), the 2023 blueprint that elevated LNG to the top of Hanoi's near-term generation mix as authorities pulled back on new coal-fired capacity. Choo Hyeong-wook, SK Innovation's chief executive, attended Tuesday's ceremony alongside PV Power and NASU representatives, the company said in a release.
Construction is scheduled to run roughly five years, with commercial operations targeted by December 2030. The consortium has not disclosed individual equity stakes or the timing of capital draws across the build period.
A coastal foothold north of Da Nang
Nghe An, a coastal province in north-central Vietnam, has emerged as one of the early hubs for the country's LNG-to-power transition: its long Gulf of Tonkin shoreline and unbuilt grid corridor are well-suited to imported gas, and Hanoi's PDP8 calls for tens of gigawatts of new LNG-fired generation by 2030 as the central government phases out new coal projects. SK Innovation's plant alone, at 1.5 gigawatts, would account for a meaningful slice of that target if it meets its end-of-decade deadline.
PV Power, a unit of state oil-and-gas group PetroVietnam, is one of Vietnam's largest power generators. NASU, formally the Nghe An Sugar Joint Stock Company, operates a sizable bioenergy footprint in the host province and brings local permitting depth to the consortium.
A broader SK Group bet on Vietnam
The Vietnam push fits a broader pattern across SK Group. Earlier this month, SK Inc., the holding company at the top of the chaebol, said it had fully exited a five-year investment in Vietnamese pharmaceutical firm Imexpharm at what local press described as a roughly 100 percent return on capital — folding the proceeds into other Southeast Asian opportunities. SK Inc. retains other equity exposure to Vietnamese conglomerates from earlier years.
SK Innovation's own footprint in the country has until now been narrower, primarily lubricant blending and downstream distribution. The Nghe An project — at 3.3 trillion won — makes the refiner the group's single largest industrial committer in Vietnam to date.
What investors are watching
Two near-term variables will shape the project's earnings contribution. First, the consortium's equity split: SK Innovation has not disclosed its share, and a minority interest would dampen the line-item impact on the refiner's 2031 results even at full commercial run-rate. Second, gas-supply economics: Vietnam imports nearly all of its LNG, and Nghe An's power-purchase agreement framework — still being finalized at the provincial level — will determine how feedstock cost volatility flows through to plant cash flow.
SK Innovation closed at 117,500 won on Monday, little changed on the year. The company did not issue a guidance update tied to the groundbreaking.
