VietNamNet Bridge - Building large oil rigs is within Vietnam’s reach, according to Pham Tien Dung, general director of PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PV Drilling).

Thanh Nien newspaper has quoted Dung as saying that PV Drilling began building the first oil rig in 2002, and put it into operation in 2007. Since then, the oil rig has been operating well, finding oil in most of wells.

Vietnam is now capable of building large oil rigs, even larger than the China’s Haiyang 981 which China deployed on Vietnamese territorial waters in May 2014, according to Dung.

Haiyang 982 is described as stronger and more modern than existing oil rigs, which allows it to operate well in the severe conditions of the East Sea.

VnExpress quoted sources as reporting that China began building Haiyang 982 on July 1 at a shipyard in Dailan. 

The building is expected to be completed by the end of 2016 when it will be transferred to China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or CNOOC Group.

This is a sixth-generation semi-submersible drilling rig which the Chinese called "artificial islands in the sea".

Meanwhile, in June 2015, Vietnamese PTSC M&C, belonging to PTSC, a subsidiary of the national oil and gas group PetroVietnam, announced a plan to export a $100 million MLS (Marahaja Lela South) to Brunei.

PTSC has reportedly finished the building of the jacket weighing 1,200 tons in Brunei, while it is working on the topside with the weight of nearly 3,000 tons in Vung Tau City of Vietnam.

Prior to that, in November 2014, PTSC M&C exported to India the topside of HRD (Heera redevelopment) platform worth $70 million. The buyer was ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation).

In October 2014, PetroVietnam, the partner in Vietsovepetro, the joint venture between Vietnam and Russia, and PV Shipyard, the contractor, organized the keel laying ceremony for Tam Dao 05 oil rig after five months of execution.

Tam Dao 05 jack up is designed in accordance with the US Friede and Goldman’s JU-2000E model. It weighs 18,000 tons, can operate at the depth of 120 meters (400 ft) and can drill up to the depth of 9,000 meters (30,000 ft).

Tam Dao 05, worth $230 million, is expected to be completed in 32 months. This is the second jack up created by Vietnam after Tam Dao 03, which was put into operation in 2012.

In February, at Keppel FELS Limited’s shipyard in Singapore, PV Drilling organized a ceremony on naming the jack up designed and manufactured by PV Drilling. It was named PV Drilling VI.

Dat Viet