Vietnam oil joint venture reports profitable year

Vietsovpetro, a Vietnamese-Russian oil and gas joint venture, announced revenues topped US$5 billion last year, a 16 percent jump, despite lower output.
Net profit was $836 million, a year-on-year jump of 18 percent and 21 percent higher than earlier projections.

Its output was around 9.8 million tons of crude oil, some 850,000 tons less than the previous year, due to a production cut in some wells.

However, its bottom line benefited from consistently high global oil prices last year.

Vietsovpetro was set up by the state-owned Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation and Russia’s Zarubezheft over two decades ago when it became the first international JV to explore for oil off the Vietnamese coast.

The JV has generated $33 billion in revenues, turning it into one of the country’s most successful joint investments, and also contributed $20 billion to the state coffers over the past 25 years.

Last year it contributed around $3.55 billion to the state budget a rise of $530 million over a year earlier.

The company has produced nearly 161 million tons of crude oil to date from Bach Ho (White Tiger), Rong (Dragon) and Dai Hung (Big Bear) fields, and has acquired 16.8 billion cu.m of liquid petroleum and other gases.

It makes up 80 percent of the oil and gas output of Vietnam which is the third largest producer and exporter in Southeast Asia.

The JV plans to expand operations in Vietnam and to other countries.

By Dong Ha