Vietnamese state-owned oil group PetroVietnam has signed a series of agreements with Russian energy groups during a bilateral meeting of Russian and Vietnamese officials.
PetroVietnam has signed a cooperation agreement with Rosneft for the expansion of their cooperation in Russia, Vietnam and third countries in the area of hydrocarbon exploration and production (including offshore), processing, commerce and logistics. The two companies are currently involved in gas and condensate exploration and production offshore Vietnam (Block 06.1) where Rosneft is the project operator with 35%. The project is based on a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) and comprises two gas condensate fields, Lan Tay and Lan Do, with gas reserves estimated at 66 bcm. Both companies also have stakes in the Nam Con Son pipeline.
PetroVietnam has also signed two Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with Gazprom on the development of new oil and gas projects (cooperation in hydrocarbon prospecting, exploration and development within new projects at licensed blocks on the shelf of Vietnam and in third countries) and on power generation; the companies will explore the possibilities of joint projects for gas-fired power generation in Vietnam, that would be fuelled with gas from their joint projects offshore Vietnam and LNG from Gazprom's portfolio. Gazprom and PetroVietnam are already cooperating in oil and gas exploration and production through their 50-50 joint venture Vietgazprom and have been strengthening their partnership since 2009.
In addition, PetroVietnam has signed a 30-year production sharing agreement (PSA) with Zarubezhneft on the offshore Block 16-1/15; Vietsovpetro, the joint-venture of PetroVietnam (51%) and Zarubezhneft (49%), will operate the US$50m project with a 51% interest, with PetroVietnam holding 29% and Bitexco and Sovico holding 10% each.