Russian Deputy Minister of EnergyYuri Sentiurin gave the statement during a working session withChairman of the Member Council of the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group(PetroVietnam) Nguyen Xuan Son, who was on a working visit to Russiaon September 2-3.
For his part, Son thanked the RussianGovernment for its support to the GazpromViet and RusVietPetro jointventures, proposing the ministry continue to create favourableconditions for the two JVs’ effective operation.
He affirmed thatPetroVietnam is ready to invest in oil and gas projects in Russia,adding that Vietnam wants to act as a bridge for Russian oil firms toaccess the Association of Southeast Asian Nations market.
Sonsaid he hopes that cooperation in oil and gas between the countries willbe elevated to a higher level, contributing to tightening theVietnam-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership as well as steppingup their oil and gas sectors.
While in Russia, Son also hadworking sessions with leaders of the Russian energy sector and chairmenof Russian leading oil and gas groups such as Gazprom, Rosneft andZaruberhneft.
During the meetings, the two sides discussedmeasures to boost cooperation and enhance operation efficiency ofexisting joint ventures. They also discussed Russian oil and gas groupGazprom Neft’s buying 49 percent of the stake in Vietnam’s Dung QuatOil Refinery.
According to the deal recently struck by directorsof the two groups, Gazprom Neft will also join a project to upgrade andexpand the Dung Quat refinery, which aims to increase the plant'sproduction capacity to around 10 million tonnes per year.
PetroVietnamand Rosneft Group have agreed to set up a joint venture to explore andexploit two oilfields in Russia’s Pechora waters.-VNA