Vietnamese Five-Year Plan Envisages Dynamic Growth for PetroVietnam

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a new national Five-Year Plan emphasizing PetroVietnam increased production.

The new governmental dictates provide for the state-owned Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN), more commonly known as PetroVietnam, to increase production by up to 20 percent a year.

These new government production figures for PetroVietnam would boost output to oil and gas reserves and petroleum exploration output by 35-40 million tons and 23-34 million tons of oil per year, according to VietnamPlus news agency.

Should the government mandated targets be achieved, then by 2015 PetroVietnam would be producing 16-17 million tons of refined oil annually, meeting 50-60 percent of domestic gasoline consumption as well as producing 60-70 percent of the country’s nitrogenous fertilizer requirements.

PetroVietnam has expanded beyond domestic production and now carries out exploration activities in Malaysia, Indonesia, Mongolia and Algeria, and produces oil in both Iraq and Malaysia. Moving further into foreign markets where the company has not previously had a presence, on 18 August Bolivian state oil and gas company YPFB announced that it had signed an agreement with PetroVietnam to conduct preliminary studies for natural gas exploration in the Andean nation. Overseas companies exploring for national gas in Bolivia drill under "service provider" contracts.

By. Charles Kennedy, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com