Petrovietnam targeting higher exports
PetroVietnam is planning to export a further 400,000 tonnes
of crude oil during the latter half of the year, in a bid to
bolster declining export figures.
The move has sparked scepticism among market analysts,
who say any increase in export volume is very difficult given
the low consumption of crude oil as the world grapples with
economic recession.
They say that the country's two biggest crude oil importers -
the United States and Japan - will reduce purchases because
of sluggish growth of their national economies.
The latest statistics from PetroVietnam bear them out.
The US, Vietnam's biggest customer who accounted for
27.78 per cent of the country's crude export last year, has
ordered less this year; and Japan, who accounted for 23.89
per cent, is yet to order more.
Vietnam exported about 8.21 million tonnes of crude in the
first six months of the year for about US$1.4 billion,
marking a year-on-year reduction of 17 per cent in value.
The decrease was the result of the fluctuations in world
crude prices and lower demand from foreign countries.
Last month, the export price fell $33.92 a tonne to $170.75.
Lower earnings from crude oil was party responsible for a 5.9
per cent year-on-year fall in the value of total exports in the
first half of the year.
It was not all gloom on the crude oil export front, however,
with China and Singapore showing their interest in
purchasing more crude oil from Vietnam this year onwards.
In fact, market analysts predict that China, which is currently
buying 22.2 per cent of Vietnamese crude, will become the
nation's largest oil importer this year.
Energy24 - July 04, 2002.
Petrovietnam, BP discuss $800 m gas hub
HANOI - State oil firm Petrovietnam and Britain's BP Plc are
considering creating a gas processing hub for Vietnam's Nam
Con Son basin, which could involve investment of about $800
million, a BP official said on Monday.
The official said talks between Petrovietnam, BP and other
foreign firms interested in developing the gas-rich area off
southern Vietnam had been under way for several months but
were still at an early conceptual stage.
The investment -- a rough provisional estimate -- would be in
addition to a $1.3 billion integrated project that BP is already
involved in the Nam Con Son basin, said the official, who did not
want to be identified.
"Petrovietnam is leading a group of people who have an interest
in the basin," he said. "They are talking about how they could
develop it in the most effective way.
"That could mean developing some kind of processing hub for the
basin. Also they are considering the expansion of the current
Nam Con Son pipeline."
The official said BP was an "active" member of the group, but
investment in any such project would come from all parties
involved. He did not name the other foreign firms.
"The group is talking about some rough cost estimate of about
$800 million for the developing of the whole basin. That would
include the processing hub and expansion of the pipeline.
"The gas would come to the one main hub for processing before
it is exported or transported somewhere else."
He said it had not been decided where a processing hub would
be located, although it would be in the vicinity of the basin, or
what the timeframe for construction should be.
Alan Johnson, a minister of state at Britain's Department of Trade
and Industry, who was visiting Vietnam on Monday, had been
briefed by BP on the plan, the official said.
Earlier on Monday, Johnson initialled an agreement on
investment protection with the Vietnamese government, which he
said should boost business confidence in the Southeast Asian
country.
Britain is the largest non-Asian investor in Vietnam, largely due
to BP's existing project in the Nam Con Son basin.
That project involves the development of the Lan Tay and Lan Do
gas fields in Vietnam's block 06.1, a 400-km (250-mile) pipeline
to shore and a gas-fired powerplant.
BP's foreign partners in the venture are India's ONGC Videsh, a
subsidiary of the state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp, and Conoco
Inc.
Reuters - July 01, 2002.
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