Energy supply autonomy very challenging: industry minister

Speaking at a meeting with a supervisory delegation of the National Assembly Standing Committee on energy development on Friday, he said from being an energy exporter Vietnam became an importer in 2015 as coal, oil and gas and hydroelectricity sources were fully tapped or depleting.

With its projected GDP growth of 6.5-7.5% a year until 2030, it would see a rapid growth in demand for electricity, he said.

Its energy consumption would surge to the equivalent of 140 million tons of oil by 2030, double the 2015 demand, he said.

The limited domestic energy supply mean Vietnam would have to rely on imports in the long term, and they would account for 33-37% of its needs by 2025 and 50-58% by 2035, he said.

Vietnam has signed a deal to import 20 million tons of coal annually from Laos for the next five years.

It has 220-kV lines linking Laos, and will also import at least 3,000 MW of electricity from the neighboring country by 2025 and 5,000 MW by 2030.