The oil and gas projects in Vietnam will expect to exploit from now to 2030

According to PVN updated data in the discovered reserves (unexploited), the reserves from large gas projects such as Block B and Blue Whale account for 30% (equal to the remaining reserves of the exploiting gas fields). These are large gas projects, and developing these projects will bring great efficiency and overall benefits to Vietnam State. However, the development of a gas and power chain such as Block B and Blue Whale requires synchronous mechanisms for the gas market and the electricity market. But at the moment, we still don't have these mechanisms. This is one of the main causes of delays in project implementation. This delay has and will greatly affect the output offset in the coming time, causing a great waste of the resources of the country.

Therefore, in the coming period, PVN will continue to make efforts to maximize resources for implementing Block B and Blue Whale gas projects, contributing to ensuring national energy security.

With the above two projects, from now to 2025, PVN will strive to exploit 6 - 10 new oil projects. But these projects with small recoverable reserves, are difficult to make up recovering for the decline in oil and gas in existing oil and gas fields.

In addition, PVN will plan to develop and exploit the small and marginal fields such as gas fields Hoa Mai, Bao Vang, the field group Khanh My - Dam Doi - Phu Tan, and the oil fields: Ham Rong, King Fish - Dog Bear, Golden Whale and promising structures of Lot 09.1, etc. However, being able to exploit these projects depends a lot on suitable mechanisms and policies for the investors to deploy with ensuring profits.

In order to solve the difficulties and problems of the key oil and gas projects such as Block B, Blue Whale... PVN has reported to the Prime Minister, ministries and agencies in many documents.

Specifically, for the Block B project:

1/ Approving the extend the term of the Product Sharing Contract (PSC) of the Block B&48/95 and 52/97 to ensure a stable gas supply for power plants for a period of 23 years (from the time of first gas flow)

2/ Grading the adjusting investment registration certificate for the Block B - O Mon gas pipeline project.

3/ Supporting and allowing PVN to consider investing in a new power plant to consume all the gas expected to be exploited from Block B to ensure the overall efficiency of the Project Chain, in the case if O Mon 2 Power Plant project can’t guarantee the ability to receive gas according to the upstream gas supply schedule, or does not agree to the contract conditions as EVN and EVNGENCO2 agreed with PVN.

For the Blue Whale gas field project:

1/ Continuing to provide diplomatic support for ExxonMobil to bring the Blue Whale gas field project back to the investment portfolio for the period of 2023 onwards and commit to continue to be the Project Execution Manager (at least until a moment after obtaining the Investment Decision FID)

2/ Supporting to remove obstacles on the legal framework for appraisal, approval and deployment for onshore construction items according to the Petroleum Law 2022.

3/ Through the mechanism to ensure the use consumption of the entire amount of gas committed under the gas purchase agreement to ensure the investment efficiency of the whole project chain.

Particularly for the project of appraisal, exploitation and discovery of Ken Bau condensate, as we all know: The Petroleum Product Sharing Contract (PSC) Lot 114 was signed on November 24, 2009, and was granted an Investment Certificate by the Ministry of Industry and Trade on March 17, 2010, by Essar Exploration & Production Ltd (India) holding with 100% of the participating interests and the Operator.

In 2013, ENI Oil and Gas Company (Italy) participated in the PSC and became the PSC Operator. The well 114-KB-1X (Ken Bau-1X) was drilled in 2019 and discovered gas/condensate gas with a large on-site resource. However, the results of the evaluation of KB-2X and KB-3X were not successful as expected. In this gas/condensate discovery, despite the expected large on-site resources, flow capacity remains the biggest obstacle to field development.

Therefore, for the development of Ken Bau discovery, the Foreign Investor Consortium (Eni and Essar) is continuing to study and evaluate technical solutions to develop this discovery. It is expected that, if the technical solutions are suitable, the foreign investor will continue the appraisal work in the period 2024 - 2026. In case of successful appraisal and proof of commercial gas, PVN can participate in contributing capital to this Gas Development Chain.