Vietnam, Cambodia spark oil and gas cooperation

The delegation visited representative offices of the PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation (PVEP), the PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (PV Oil), and the PetroVietnam Ca Mau Fertilizer Joint Stock Company (PVCFC) in Cambodia.

On November 12, 2009, in Phnom Penh, PVEP and the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority (CNPA) signed a contract for oil and gas exploration and extraction from Lot XV in the Tonle Sap Lake, marking the first cooperation project between the two countries in this field.

Under the contract, the two sides would cooperate to explore and extract oil for 30 years and gas within 35 years, with the exploration work to last seven years. With 100 percent of its stock held by PVEP, the contract is managed by PVEP Mekong, a PVEP member that has developed oil and gas projects in Laos and Myanmar.

In October 2014, PV Oil and the Overseas Cambodian Investment Corporation (OCIC) established a joint-venture company, PV Oil Cambodia, to develop a condensate processing project with total investment of about US$40 million. PV Oil Cambodia imports condensate from Vietnam to supply its processing plant in Cambodia. With annual capacity of 220 tonnes, major products of the plant include Ron 92 petrol, diesel oil, and liquefied petroleum gas.

Each year, PVCFC exports to Cambodia more than 40,000 tonnes of nitrogenous fertilizers via official channels and over 50,000 tonnes via unofficial channels. The company’s fertilizer products have won the trust of Cambodian farmers. PVCFC is striving to increase the annual export volume to 100,000 tonnes.

PetroVietnam Member Council Chairman Nguyen Quoc Khanh requested PVEP to accelerate the implementation of projects and PVCFC to work out a strategic plan to promote its rapid and steady growth in Cambodia. He also requested PV Oil to pay great attention to the effectiveness of the condensate processing project.

Cambodia began to explore oil and gas in the 1950s. In the 1970s, Elf and Esso were assigned to extract oil and gas from Lots I, III, and IV in Cambodia’s offshore areas. In 1987, Russian and Cambodian geologists carried out research and identified seven sediment beds onshore and offshore, and divided them into seven offshore beds and nine onshore beds numbered from I to XIX.

In 2005 the US’ Chevron Corporation explored and found oil from offshore southern Cambodia. After that, many businesses from France, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Kuwait, China, and Japan sought permission to explore oil in Cambodia.

The United Nations Development Program estimated that Cambodia’s oil and gas reserves total about 700 million barrels of oil equivalent. However, the country still has to import 100 percent of petroleum and gas to meet domestic demand.

Source: VEN