Gas to pump from off southern shore of Vietnam




Ha Noi, Jan. 25 (VNA) - Gas is soon to be pumped from the shared Viet Nam-Malaysia gas field off sourthern Viet Nam by PetroVietnam and Malaysia's Oil and Gas Co.

The gas will be used to fuel electricity generation in the Mekong delta provinces of Tra Vinh and Can Tho and is part of PetroVietnam's plans to exploit the country's potential to produce an estimated yearly 2,200 billion cu.m. of the fuel.

Other projects planned by PetroVietnam for the effective use of gas for both industry and daily life include:

A USD 400-million project to bring gas ashore from the southern Bach Ho, White Tiger, oilfield. The project will provide capacity for the yearly supply of 1.5 billion cu.m. to the Ba Ria power plant, southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, as well as generators in the Phu My Industrial Zone and liquefied petroleum gas plants for import substitution.

A USD-1.5 billion project to lay 400 km of pipeline to carry gas from the southern Nam Con Son basin to power plants in the Phu My Industrial Zone, Ho Chi Minh City, and southern Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces.

The Nam Con Son project will eventually ensure gas for a yearly 12 billion kWh in the next 15 years.

Of the ten basins so far identified in Viet Nam, four - in the northern Red River delta, the Mekong delta, Nam Con Son and the overlapping Malaysia-Tho Chu - have oil and gas.

The Nam Con Son basin has estimated reserves of 500 billion cu. m. but the Lan Tay-Lan Do oilfield in the basin is thought the biggest with reserves estimated at 60 billion cu. m. Projects for the use of gas were started in 1996 within the Gas-Electricity-Nitrogenous Fertilizer Complex in the Phu My Industrial Zone and are expected to be finished in 2007.

Yearly demand for gas within Ho Chi Minh City and neighbouring Dong Nai province is put at 7.7 billion cu.m. with yearly demand for liquefied petroleum gas, LPG, likely to rise to 396,000 tonnes by 2010.--VNA