Vietnam's guarantee for vast gas project

Vietnam's guarantee for vast gas project

HANOI (AFP): Vietnam's government has agreed to provide
guarantees to foreign oil firms for the country's biggest natural
gas project, worth US$1 billion, official media said Sunday.

Documents extending the guarantee were signed Friday by
officials of the planning and investment ministry and
representatives of British Petroleum, Statoil from Norway and The
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation from India, communist party
organ, Nhan Dan said.

The guarantee, aimed at reassuring foreign investors, concerns
the transport of natural gas from the Nam Con Son offshore basin
400 kilometers (360 miles) southeast of southern Vietnam's Vung
Tau city.

Gas from the Nam Con Son basin, discovered in 1993, with
reserves estimated at 58 billion cubic metres, is to be
transported overland to the Phy My hydroelectric station in the
Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, the paper said.

Initial accords on the project were signed in April last year
between the three foreign firms and the state-owned PetroVietnam
but bureaucratic delays held up progress.

Foreign experts say lengthy negotiations on the price of gas
added to the delay in finalizing an agreement.

Vietnam produces more than 10 million tons of crude oil and a
billion cubic metres of gas from its joint venture project with
Russia, VietsovPetro. The country has no refinery and ships out
almost all of its production.