The Viet Nam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and Russian oil and gas group Rosneft will set up a joint venture company to explore two oil wells in Pechora Sea.— Illustrative image/VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hung

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The Viet Nam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and Russian oil and gas group Rosneft will set up a joint venture company to explore two oil wells in Pechora Sea.

The two oil wells in north-western Russia 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 and 3 between PetroVietnam representatives and First Russian Deputy Minister of Energy Yuri Sentiurin, Rosneft Chairman of the Management Board Igor Sechin, Gasprom chairman Alesey Miller and Zaruberhneft managing director Sergey Kudryashov.

Both sides expressed satisfaction at their effective co-operation in the oil and gas industry and discussed measures to improve the operational efficiency of existing Viet Nam-Russia joint venture companies (JVs), including GazpromViet and RusVietPetro.

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

Sentiurin said that his ministry was willing to facilitate these JVs' operations for mutual benefit.

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

Son expressed the hope that the co-operation in oil and gas between the two countries would be lifted to new heights, so as to promote the Viet Nam-Russia comprehensive partnership and their oil industry.

During the working sessions, Rosneft and PetroVietnam also discussed the supply of Russian oil to PetroVietnam's Dung Quat refinery and potential co-operation on modernising the plant to increase its output to 10 million tonnes per year.

"PetroVietnam is a strategic partner of Rosneft," Rosneft's Igor Sechin said in a statement on the company's website.

Rosneft is also in talks to buy Chevron's stake in gas fields off southern Viet Nam for about US$200 million, PetroVietnam CEO Do Van Hau told Bloomberg in an interview last month.

PetroVietnam, Japan's Mitsui&Co and Thailand's PTT Exploration&Production are partners in the Chevron project and have the first option on any stake that is put up for sale, Hau said. — VNS