Unocal finds Vietnam gas

Unocal finds Vietnam gas

HANOI (AFP): A consortium including subsidiaries of U.S.-based Unocal Corporation and Mitsui Oil Exploration Co. of Japan have discovered natural gas offshore Vietnam, a Vietnamese oil official said yesterday.

"This is a significant gas find," an official from PetroVietnam's Exploration and Development Department in Hanoi, told AFP. He declined to give further details pending a formal announcement.

A spokesperson for Unocal's regional office in Singapore said it "would be premature to comment" on the importance of the find.

The discovery was made in Block B in the northern part of the Malay Basin southwest of Vietnam.

Unocal Vietnam Exploration Ltd, a subsidiary of Unocal, is the operator of the block and holds a 45-percent interest in the production sharing contract signed in May 1996.