  |
|
PetroVietnam may join Venezuela oil project
AFP
HANOI
Petroleumworld.com 12 09 06Vietnam's state-run oil and gas company PetroVietnam is on course to enter a joint venture with Venezuela to explore and exploit oil in the South American country, the government said Friday.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has agreed in principle to a joint venture with Petroleos de Venezuela to search for oil in the Junin-2 bloc of the Orinoco oil belt and other areas, the communist government's website said.
PetroVietnam would also consider the possibility of allowing its Venezuelan counterpart to build an oil refinery and port to receive crude oil from Venezuela, it said.
Vietnam is rich in crude oil but lacks refining capacity, forcing the country of 84 million people to import refined petroleum products.
Vietnam is now building its first oil refinery, a project worth about 2.5 billion dollars, at Dung Quat in the central Quang Ngai province.
The Technip group of France, leading a consortium including the Japanese engineering giant JGC Corporation and Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas, is working together with PetroVietnam.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose country is one of the world's largest oil producers, promised during a visit in July to help Vietnam turn its offshore oil and gas reserves into petroleum products.
AFP 08 0513 GMT 12 06
Copyright© 2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels