Lukoil Pulls Out of Vietnam Exploration Project

Russia’s largest private oil firm Lukoil has withdrawn from a joint venture exploration project in Vietnam following unsatisfactory results, an executive at the Vietnamese partner company told Saigon Times Daily on Wednesday.
 
Lukoil’s subsidiary, Lukoil Overseas Vietnam, bought a 50 per cent stake in the development of the Hanoi Trough-02 (??-02) oil field in 2011. Although Lukoil has not provided a public explanation, Do Van Hau, general director of PetroVietnam, has reportedly said it is normal under the circumstances as the project failed to find commercial reserves after drilling two wells.

In January, KrisEnergy announced that its drilling of the Cua Lo-1 exploration well in Block 105-110/04 offshore in Vietnam showed poor reservoir deliverability and a high carbon dioxide content. The well will be plugged and abandoned. 

However, other companies including Gazprom and Rosneft are expanding exploration offshore in Vietnam. Last year Gazprom and PetroVietnam discussed further cooperation in joint projects to develop oil and gas resources, both on Vietnam's continental shelf, and on Russian Federation territory. They have joint projects already including gas production from blocks 05-2 and 05-3.

PetroVietnam fulfilled all the targets set by the government, and there were 05 new oil and gas discoveries: Kinh Ngu Vang - 1X, Dai Nguyet - 2X, Nam Du - 1X, Te Giac Trang - 10X and Kinh Ngu Trang Nam -1X. Following the 2013 success, in 2014, the year of the horse, PetroVietnam continues a new race with the slogan "Be Drastic, Follow-up, Spurt, Overfulfill". With that spirit and determination, PetroVietnam completely believes it will be able to fulfill the targets of 16.21 million tons of oil and 9.5 billion m3 of gas assigned by the government for 2014.