Foreign Investors Pours US$8Bln into Oil, Gas in Vietnam

Foreign investors have spent more than US$8 billion exploring oil and gas in Vietnam as of late 2006, the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry said.

 

Fifty-eight foreign investors have signed product-sharing contracts (PSC), joint operating company contracts (JOC) and business cooperation contracts (BCC), it said.

 

To date, 35 contracts remain valid.

 

Key foreign oil explorers and producers in Vietnam include BP Vietnam, Talisman, Chevron, ONGC Videsh, Petronas and Premier Oil.

 

On the other side, Vietnam’s state oil and gas monopoly PetroVietnam carried out seven exploration projects.

 

It measured reserves of 1.1 billion tons of crude oil equivalent, of which 825 million tons are now within reach and 250 million tons are temporarily out of reach,

 

Vietnam is estimated to have oil and gas reserves of 2.75-3 billion tons of crude oil equivalent, of which gas contributes some 60 per cent.

 

In a related development, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked PetroVietnam to work with relevant bodies to appraise development plans for small oil and gas reserves, which contain less than 30 million of crude oil or less than 15 billion cubic meters of gas. (Investment, New Hanoi)