Vietnam to pump more oil

Vietnam to pump more oil

HANOI (DPA): Vietnam, the fourth largest oil exporter in
Southeast Asia, aims to extract 17 million tons of crude oil in
2000, an increase of 2 million tons over last year, official
media reported Wednesday.

State oil monopoly PetroVietnam's planned expansion, which
includes increasing pumping capacity at existing offshore fields
and tapping into new wells, is set to boost the communist-ruled
nation's exports, which are routinely led by strong sales of
crude.

Last year Vietnam exported nearly all of its 15 million tons
of extracted crude, earning the state and its foreign partners
over $2 billion, according to Vietnam News.

That was a 62.3 percent increase on 1998 earnings and made up
17 percent of the country's total export turnover.

Hanoi has earned more than $10 billion from its exports of
crude since the late 1970s when it first entered offshore oil
partnerships with the Soviet Union.

About 90 per cent of exports still come from VietSovPetro, the
partnership between PetroVietnam and Russia's state-owned
Zarubezhneft.