Inside the underground storage facility. — Photo tuoitre.vn

A US$1.35 billion underground storage facility for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia with a huge storage capacity of 240,000 tonnes, is expected to soon become operational in the Mekong Delta province of Ba Ria – Vung Tau.

As part of a polypropylene plant project by the South Korean-funded Hyosung Vina Chemicals company, the storage cavern has been built at a depth of between more than 100m to nearly 200m above sea level, with 95 per cent of its workload completed.

Engineer Pham Thi Hong, an operator of the facility, said the facility lies under a layer of hard rock and is designed in an egg-shaped form so the pressure is distributed evenly. Meanwhile, its other technical factors will keep LPG from leaking out, she added.

Wie Chol Ryang, the chief operator of the underground construction, underscored its absolute safety against earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes.

He said its life span is 50 years, noting an underground storage facility costs less than the one built on the ground and offers better land-use efficiency.

In addition to the cavern, to serve the plant, Hyosung Vina has built 10 gas tanks with a capacity of 4,000 tonnes each, the largest of their kind worldwide.

The project also includes a fractionation tower of nearly 120m high and 10m in diameter, making it the tallest and largest in the world. — VNS