An oil rig in the Ruby field (Photo: VNA)The blocks in the Cuu Long basin are located off the continental shelf of Vietnam about 150km to the southeast of Vung Tau, a port city and the capital of the southern province of Ba Ria –Vung Tau. The four oil fields currently under exploitation have been named Ruby, Pearl, Topaz and Diamond. Meanwhile, two other oil fields, Jade and Emerald, and a number of potential sites are being explored.
According to PVEP, the oil and gas contract at Blocks 01&02 between PetroVietnam and the contractor Petronas Carigali Vietnam Limited – the operator – officially ended on September 9 in 2017. Petrovietnam and PVEP then signed a temporary lease to operate oil and gas exploitation in the blocks, with PVEP taking charge of their operations from September 10 the same year.
Over the past five years, PVEP has encountered many difficulties. With no oil and gas contracts, the company was unable to make large investments. In addition, the equipment was out of date and out of sync, while the rigs, and oil and natural gas wells were short of supplies and backup equipment. Notably, in 2020 and 2021, the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic caused multiple obstacles in terms of equipment and personnel.
To overcome these challenges, Petrovietnam and PVEP have effectively and synchronously implemented solutions for the blocks to ensure absolute safety. No accidents were reported in that period, and the offshore exploitation front was maintained throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
PVEP also concentrated on reducing costs, launching strict control of materials, and biddings for equipment and services. In particular, its initiatives and technical improvements have streamlined production, improved efficiency, and reduced costs by millions of dollars.
In addition, a mid- and long-term development strategy to study options for oil rig expansion and development, and the optimisation of the blocks’ exploitation equipment has been developed. The strategy lays a basis to realise the goal of increasing output from the product sharing contract.
As a result, the blocks’ average annual oil production now exceeds the target by between 3% and 10%. On May 23, 2022, the total production of Blocks 01&02 reached 130 million barrels, making PVEP one of the four contractors in Vietnam to achieve the figure.
Its revenue from 2017 exceeded 1.2 billion USD, with over 450 million USD paid to the State budget. The after-tax profit was temporarily calculated at 262 million USD.
In more than three decades accompanying the development of the Vietnamese oil and gas industry, the blocks have played a very important role in ensuring energy security, generating foreign currency revenue, contributing to the State budget, creating jobs, and helping protect national sovereignty at sea.
Blocks 01&02 hit oil from the Ruby field in 1998 and from the Diamond field in 2014. They reached the milestone of exploiting 50 million barrels of oil in 2006 and 100 million barrels in 2015, with output reaching the highest level of 25,000 barrels on May 29, 2015./.
VNA
