Petrovietnam and KEPCO Speed up Talks on Ninh Thuan 2 Nuclear Project

Petrovietnam and South Korea’s Korea Electric Power Corp have accelerated negotiations to construct Vietnam’s Ninh Thuan 2 nuclear plant. Workers have already cleared 97.5 per cent of the site land.

Chief Executive Le Manh Cuong met KEPCO President Kim Dong-cheol in Seoul on Tuesday. They met to advance technology, investment, and project financing frameworks for the commercial nuclear facility.

Land Clearances and Financing Talks

Hanoi assigned Petrovietnam to lead development of the Ninh Thuan 2 station to revive nuclear power generation. In July, the Ministry of Industry and Trade confirmed KEPCO as the primary foreign partner candidate following preliminary discussions with Vietnamese authorities.

Site preparation in Ninh Thuan province is almost complete. Petrovietnam confirmed that remaining clearance operations will finish shortly. That clears a key requirement before commercial construction agreements can proceed.

South Korean Reactor Push in Southeast Asia

KEPCO presented its delivery of the Barakah nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates as an operational blueprint for Vietnam. The four-reactor Barakah complex represents Seoul’s main export reference. It gives KEPCO an edge in discussions over procurement models and long-term project debt financing.

Choosing KEPCO creates a deliberate split in Vietnam’s nuclear procurement program. Hanoi previously designated Russia’s state atomic agency Rosatom to develop the separate Ninh Thuan 1 project. The strategy distributes technological reliance across competing nuclear suppliers rather than committing to a single foreign vendor.

Power Demand and Grid Readiness

Vietnam shelved nuclear power planning in 2016 because of cost constraints and fiscal discipline. Rising baseload electricity demand from industrial clusters has forced trade officials to bring atomic power back into the long-term national power development master plan.

Factories and industrial operators in Vietnam face ongoing grid capacity constraints as export manufacturing expands. High-capacity nuclear baseload addresses supply reliability. However, commercial terms and safety licensing still require bilateral government approvals.

Next, Hanoi and Seoul will run financial structuring reviews while Petrovietnam finishes the final 2.5 per cent of site clearance work.