Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, Aug. 18 (VNA) -- With a new oil discovery at the Su Tu Den (Black Lion) oil and gas field on the southeastern continental shelf, Viet Nam expects to exploit 28-30 million tonnes of oil and gas per year by 2010.

According to initial estimate by the Viet Nam Oil and Gas Corporation (PetroVietnam) and its partners, the reserve of the new oil field at lot 15-1, belonging to Cuu Long sedimentary area offshore Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, is about 420 million barrels.

Prof. and Dr. Ho Si Thoang, who is former Chairman of the PetroVietnam Executive Board, said it was difficult to give a correct estimate of the field's reserve. He took an example of the Bach Ho (White Tiger) oil field, which has provided nearly 100 million tonnes and is expected to have about 50 million more tonnes as compared to the initial estimate of 70 million tonnes in all. But he affirmed that despite different assessments of the country's oil and gas reserve, Viet Nam would continue exploiting oil and gas till 2020.

The PetroVietnam and its foreign parners have prepared a plan to start pumping oil in the Su Tu Den field in late 2003 and early 2004.

They are working under a joint venture contract, signed on Sept. 16, 1998 and valid for 25 years, on searching, exploring, developing and exploiting oil and gas reserves at the 4,600-sq.km lot 15-1. Under the contract, the joint venture, named Cuu Long Joint Venture Company (or CLJOC for short), is shared by the PetroVietnam (50 percent), the United States' Conoco Ltd. (23.25 percent), the Republic of Korea's KNOC (14.25 percent) and SK (9 percent), and France's Geopetrol (3.5 percent).

The joint venture has drilled three oil wells according to the investment license. In 2000 alone, it discovered oil at Su Tu Den 1X at a rate of 12,600 barrels or 1,576 tonnes a day, and at Su Tu Den 2X at a rate of 13,223 barrels or 1,890 tonnes a day. With these results, experts estimated the reserve for the test-run period would be 139 million barrels.

However, to reach the target of 30 million tonnes of oil and gas per year (1,000 cu.m of gas is converted to be equivalent to 1 tonne of oil), Viet Nam is seeking more foreign investors to raise USD 500 million per year for oil exploration.--VNA