PetroVietnam reports record sales of $16 billion

PetroVietnam, the country’s largest oil and gas group, announced record sales of VND280.05 trillion (US$16 billion) last year following a year-on-year increase of 31%.

In a statement, the state-owned company said the figure accounted for a fifth of the country's GDP, but did not divulge its profit figure.

It also said it earned $11.15 billion from exports, an increase of 26.7% over the previous year.

The country has extensive offshore oil reserves in the East Sea, where PetroVietnam together with Russian and other foreign partners exploits several major fields, mostly in the Nam Con Son and Cuu Long basins.

The largest oil-producing company is Vietsovpetro, a joint venture between PetroVietnam and Russia's Zarubezhneft, which drills for oil in the Bach Ho (White Tiger) field, the largest of at least nine offshore oil fields.

PetroVietnam has also formed partnerships with companies from a dozen other countries, like the UK’s BP, the US’ ConocoPhillips and Malaysia's Petronas.

PetroVietnam, as the Viet Nam National Oil and Gas Group calls itself, said it discovered five new oil and gas sources in 2008 and signed 15 contracts, mostly with foreign partners including Russia and Venezuela.

In related news, PetroVietnam and the government’s State Capital Investment Corporation have announced a partnership to jointly enter as majority stakeholders into ventures with foreign companies at home and abroad.

Viet Nam has no oil refining capacity and imports refined petroleum products for domestic needs, but the Dung Quat refinery in the central region is due to become operational next year. (TN)