Ba Ria-Vung Tau (VNA)꧂ – Vietsovpetro, a Vietnam – Russia joint venture, held a ceremony in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau on August 12 to mark its 35th founding anniversary and 30 years since its first tonne of crude oil was exploited.

Applauding Vietsovpetro’s efforts and successes, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung also appreciated Russia’s support for Vietnam throughout history, particularly contributions by Russian experts and engineers to the development of the company, as well as the local oil and gas industry. He asked the firm to step up exploration activities, especially in offshore waters in Vietnam’s continental shelf and exclusive economic zone, to raise the exploitation volume and help guarantee energy security. Vietsovpetro should expand partnerships with businesses in Russia and former Soviet Union countries, while applying cutting edge technologies to ensure safe and effective exploitation. It also needs to expeditiously conduct restructuring, he added. Over the past 35 years, Vietsovpetrol has discovered seven oil and gas fields with large reserves that have helped turn Vietnam into the third biggest oil exploiter in Southeast Asia. It has also built facilities in the mainland to serve exploration, exploitation and transportation of oil and gas. It has gained total oil sales of more than 74 billion USD. Vietsovpetrol has also supplied over 30 billion cubic metres of gas for the gas, power and fertiliser industries. At the ceremony, Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh, on behalf of the State President, presented the Military Exploit Order (third class) to the company to recognise its contributions. Also on August 12, Vietsovpetro received a jack-up rig named Tam Dao 05 built by PetroVietnam Marine Shipyard (PV Shipyard) in Ba Ria-Vung Tau. The rig, weighing 18,000 tonnes in total, is designed to support nearly 3,000 tonnes and drill down to oil and gas wells at 9,000 metres under the sea. The 230 million USD facility began construction from March 2014.-VNA