Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung (R) receives Paul Greenwood, Vice President of Africa and Asia Pacific Business Development at ExxonMobil Gas and Power Marketing in Hà Nội yesterday. – Photo VGP

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the National Oil and Gas Group, and the US’s ExxonMobil to speed up negotiations on the development and exploitation of the Ca Voi Xanh (Blue Whale) gas field.

At a meeting with Paul Greenwood, Vice President of Africa and Asia Pacific Business Development at ExxonMobil Gas and Power Marketing in Ha Noi yesterday, the Deputy PM lauded the firm for its engagement in the project, which is significant to ensuring national energy security and operating thermal power plants in the central region.

He reaffirmed the Vietnamese Government’s commitment to creating optimal conditions so the project could start pumping gas from the Ca Voi Xanh field in 2023.

For his part, Greenwood said that the project is important for ExxonMobil in fostering co-operation with Viet Nam in exploiting and producing oil and gas products.

He gave some proposals on removing obstacles for the firm and the Vietnamese side to soon reach a final agreement.

The Ca Voi Xanh field is about 100km east of the central coast. The Prime Minister has recently approved the construction of four gas-fired power plants in Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces with total capacity of 3,000MW using gas from the field. The PM has also agreed to use part of the gas exploited from the field to develop the oil refinery industry. — VNS