ExxonMobil, PetroVietnam Sign Multi-Billion-USD Gas Deal

ExxonMobil Vietnam Company has entered a deal with PetroVietnam to exploit gas offshore Vietnam.

 

The U.S.’s ExxonMobil Vietnam Company and state-owned energy firm Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) have clinched an agreement to jointly exploit gas in the Blue Whale field offshore the Southeast Asian country, PetroVietnam said on its website.

The investment is reported to amount to $10 billion. The two sides in January this year signed framework agreement on developing the project.

The Blue Whale project, the largest of its kind in Vietnam so far, was discovered and declared commercially viable in 2015 with gas reserves estimated at 150 billion cubic meters.

The joint venture will pump ashore between nine billion and ten billion cubic meters per year, of which one billion cubic meters will be transferred to the Dung Quat oil refinery.

According to the agreement, ExxonMobil will be in charge of downstream activities and construct an 88-kilometer pipeline to bring gas ashore in the central province of Quang Nam.

For its part, PetroVietnam will build a gas processing plant and a gas-fired power plant comprising of two 600-700 megawatt turbines, both to be located in Nui Thanh district, Quang Nam province. The facilities are scheduled for completion in 2023.

Another gas-fired power plant of similar capacity will be built in the neighboring province of Quang Ngai in 2023.

Tuan Minh / BizLIVE