PetroVietnam and Rosneft will establish a joint venture company to explore and exploit two oil wells at Pechora Sea, north-west of Russia, which have a combined geological reserve of 1 billion tonnes and a recoverable reserve of 200 million tonnes.

The agreement was reached during working sessions in Moscow on September 2-3 between representatives of the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and first Russian Deputy Minister of Energy Yuri Sentiurin, executive chairman Igor Sechin of Rosneft – a leading Russian oil and gas group, chairman Alesey Miller of the Russian oil and gas JSC (Gasprom) and managing director Sergey Kudryashov of Zaruberhneft, another oil & gas JSC of Russia.  

Both sides expressed satisfaction at their effective cooperation in the oil and gas industry and discussed measures to improve operational efficiency of existing Vietnam-Russia joint venture companies, including GazpromViet and RusVietPetro.

They also examined Gazpromneft’s plan to acquire 49% of the stake of Vietnam’s Dung Quat Oil Refinery, upgrade the refinery’s capacity to 10 million tonnes per year, and supply crude oil to the plant.

Nguyen Xuan Son, Chairman of the Board of Directors of PetroVietnam, thanked the Russian government for its assistance for GazpromViet and RusVietPetro – the two JV companies of PetroVietnam, and proposed the Russian Ministry of Energy continue creating favourable conditions for the two JVs to operate efficiently in Russia.

Deputy Minister of Energy Sentiurin said his ministry is willing to facilitate these JVs’ operations for mutual benefit.

The PetroVietnam executive said his group is ready to engage in oil & gas projects in Russia, and help Russian oil & gas companies penetrate the ASEAN market.

Son expressed hope that the cooperative relations in oil and gas between the two countries will be lifted to new heights, so as to promote Vietnam-Russia comprehensive partnership and their oil industry.

VOV/VNN