* Electricity-hungry Vietnam looks to become LNG importer
* First plant fuelled from imported gas unlikely pre-2026
* Investors, Hanoi at odds over volumes, price of power
sales
* Bold plans exposed to volatile LNG prices as demand grows

By Francesco Guarascio, Emily Chow and Khanh Vu
       HANOI, July 17 (Reuters) - Vietnam received its first
shipment of liquefied natural gas this month, a milestone for
the energy-hungry country, but various hurdles mean it could
take years for imported gas to ease the country's long-running
power shortages.
    Disagreement over pricing, plant construction delays and
lack of supply contracts are dogging the Southeast Asian
manufacturing hub's adoption of LNG, hampering its ambitions to
make imported gas a major fuel, industry insiders say.
    Vietnam's urgent need to boost electricity supply, laid bare
by recent rolling blackouts, has raised concerns among foreign
investors about whether Vietnam can remain a reliable option to
diversify manufacturing away from China.
    Half the businesses in a June poll by the European Chamber
of Commerce in Vietnam said the power crisis had hurt investment
plans. Some were considering alternatives or pausing spending on
factories.
        Failure to execute on its LNG plans would mark another
blow to Hanoi's climate goals, which include imported and
domestic gas as a transition fuel to reduce coal reliance.
    With demand forecast to grow 6% annually for the rest of the
decade, Vietnam in May unveiled a $135 billion electricity
roadmap that, among other investments, would add 13 power plants
fed by gas imported as LNG by 2030.
    
    Integrating LNG into its fuel mix, Vietnam would join
neighbours Thailand and Singapore as well as the Philippines, a
recent-adopter.
    Vietnam's industry ministry did not respond to a request for
comment on implementing its LNG plan.
    
    TROUBLED PLANTS
    The first LNG shipment reached Vietnam last week. The test
cargo of super-chilled gas was sent to state-owned PetroVietnam
Gas's (PV Gas)          new Thi Vai terminal near Ho Chi Minh
City for conversion back to gas.
    Vietnam targets LNG-sourced gas generating up to 22.4
gigawatts (GW) of power by 2030, enough to power 20 million
households and account for nearly 15% of national power supply.
But Kaushal Ramesh, an analyst at Oslo-based Rystad Energy, said
a realistic expectation was just 5 GW.
    Complicating LNG efforts, much of Vietnam's planned gas
power investment is directed to the south of the country despite
the under-served north's greater vulnerability to blackouts. 
    The first northern plant that would be fuelled by imported
gas is not scheduled to begin operation until the second half of
2027, said its Japanese developer, Tokyo Gas         .
    
    
    The first plant due to come online, the Nhon Trach 3
facility being built by state-run PetroVietnam Power (PV Power)
         near Ho Chi Minh City, is scheduled to begin operation
in late 2024. Industry sources say 2026 or 2027 is more
realistic.
    The local authority cited delays caused by lack of long-term
contracts and problems over funding and permits.
    A key hurdle is that PV Power is struggling to agree with
grid operator EVN on the volume of purchases and prices for
electricity generated from its plants running on imported gas,
now some 50% more expensive than domestic gas, people familiar
with the talks said.
    PV Power wants to sell at least 80% to 90% of its imported
gas-fuelled power to EVN at a set price for two decades, while
EVN wants to commit to a lower portion, four sources said.
    Plant developers are seeking state guarantees on their power
contracts with EVN, warning that lenders would not fund their
projects otherwise, an industry insider said.
    Disagreements over power pricing contributed to a slow
uptake of the wind industry, leaving a significant share of wind
farms unplugged from the grid for years and stranding at least
4.6 GW of onshore wind capacity, according to an internal
document from a Group of Seven nation, seen by Reuters.
    Foreign developers of LNG-supplied plants, which include
U.S.-based AES         and Japan's Marubeni         , are
closely watching the pricing talks, which could set a benchmark
for their negotiations.
    Takafumi Akino of Tokyo Gas, which is building an LNG
terminal and a gas plant in northern Quang Ninh province,
predicted "hard negotiations".
        PV Power and EVN did not reply to requests for comment.
        The biggest proposed plant earmarked for imported gas, a
3.2 GW project developed by Singapore-based Delta Offshore
Energy, is undergoing debt restructuring after defaulting on a
$10 million loan from Gulf International Holdings, court
documents showed.
    Delta Offshore did not respond to requests for comment. Gulf
International's parent, Thailand-based Gulf Energy Development
         , declined to comment.
    
    LOCKING IN SUPPLY
    Delays and uncertainty make it harder to secure long-term
LNG supplies as Vietnam must compete with other importers.
Buyers across China, South and Southeast Asia have inked a slew
of multi-year deals this year.
    PV Gas said this month it was in talks with U.S. energy
giant ExxonMobil and Russia's Novatek on LNG cooperation. 
    Two trading sources who asked not to be named due to the
sensitivity of the matter said PV Gas had been seeking LNG
supplies at "unrealistically low prices".
    PV Gas did not respond to requests for comment.
    Without long-term LNG supply, Vietnam would be exposed to
volatile spot prices, which in Asia  spiked to a record
$70 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) last year before
sinking to $12/mmBtu now.
    "There may be suppliers willing to offload some volume to PV
Gas, although this is a completely different risk and credit
profile compared to what LNG producers are used to," Rystad's
Ramesh said.

    
 (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio and Khanh Vu in
Hanoi, and Emily Chow in Singapore; Additional reporting by
Florence Tan and Phuong Nguyen; Editing by Tony Munroe and
William Mallard)