OREANDA-NEWS. May 12, 2012. In Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, a meeting between General Director of Zarubezhneft Nikolay Brunich and Prime Minister of SRV Nguyen Tan Dung. Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in SRV Andrey Kovtun, Chairman of the Management Board of "Petrovietnam" National Oil & Gas Group Phung Dinh Thuc and General Director of “Petrovietnam” National Oil & Gas Group Do Van Hau were also present at the meeting.

In the course of discussion, the head of Zarubezhneft and Prime Minister of Vietnam exchanged their opinions regarding subjects of cooperation between the Russian State company and National Oil & Gas Group “Petrovietnam” within the frames of the joint projects.

In particular, Mr. Dung noted that Vietnam and Russia are connected by long-standing partnership relations and strong reliable friendship, and cooperation in oil-and-gas sphere is especially close and fruitful.

Over the years, Zarubezhneft is successfully operating together with Petrovietnam offshore Vietnam within the frames of JV “Vietsovpetro”, and this project deserves the top assessment.

Prime Minister thanked “Zarubezhneft” for a great help in formation and development of oil-and-gas industry in SRV. Mr. Dung expressed a conviction that cooperation between the two state companies will henceforth only go stronger and that the new joint and not less efficient projects will appear, such as, for example, “RUSVIETPETRO” in the territory of Nenets Autonomous Area in Russia.

Prime Minister also expressed a hope that Zarubezhneft and Petrovietnam will have a possibility to boost its oil and gas resources not only within the frames of RUSVIETPETRO but also due to the joint work offshore, in particular, in Barents Sea.

In his response speech, Nikolay Brunich thanked Prime Minister for an overall support by the Government of SRV of the Russian-Vietnamese oil-and-gas projects. He underscored that Zarubezhneft and Petrovietnam manage to not just successfully work within the frames of JV “Vietsovpetro” but also to develop at a rapid pace the project of RUSVIETPETRO in NAA. For a short period under severe conditions of the Far North two fields of the Central-Khoreyverskoye Uplift (CKU) have been successfully put into operation. In August, the third field (West-Khosedayuskoye) will be launched. In 2012, cumulative oil production will be over 2 million tons. Investments placed by Zarubezhneft and Petrovietnam in the northern project allowed creating a powerful industrial base and the infrastructure meeting the most up-to-date requirements. Speaking of the human capacity, Nikolay Brunich noted, that there is a necessity to assess the scholarship fund within the frames of RUSVIETPETRO for training the Vietnamese students in the Russian specialized higher educational institutions as it is in practice of JV “Vietsovpetro”.

Returning to the industrial theme connected with the work on Vietnamese shelf, Nikolay Brunich expressed a wish that the Government of SRV would provide a possibility to increase the resources within the frames of JV “Vietsovpetro” by transferring to the Joint Venture for development the oil-bearing blocks and areas adjacent to Bach Ho field. This would have allowed to expedite their operation by means of a significant industrial potential available with JV “Vietsovpetro”, as well as to maintain a stable oil production at the level of 6 million tons per year.

In conclusion, Nikolay Brunich assured Prime Minister of continuation of the further fruitful cooperation between Zarubezhneft and Petrovietnam not only regarding the existing but also regarding the prospective projects both in the territory of Russia and Vietnam, and in the third countries.

Summing up the results of the meeting, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung expressed a great satisfaction with a discussion held and promised to render every support on his part.