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s oil companies struggle with Company have a joint exploration agree- Nam Con Son and Song Hong basins and
the collapse in crude prices ment covering the Gulf of Tonkin. elsewhere.” Petrovietnam’s Ky Lan 1X gas
and industry upheaval, assess- In the decades since the end of the Viet- discovery in the Song Hong Basin late
ing the future of exploration and produc- nam War, exploration and development in last year is one example. That success
tion (E&P) in specific countries requires Vietnam have grown by leaps and bounds. has piqued interest among other com-
a longer term vision of a market in which With 4.4 billion bbl of oil reserves, the panies. Eni and KrisEnergy have recently
prices will have stabilized and rebounded country now ranks No. 3 in the Asia-Pacific acquired exploration blocks in the vicinity.
to a level yet undetermined. Seen in this region, trailing only China and India.
lengthier view, Vietnam holds substantial Bach Ho Proves a Tiger
E&P opportunity because of its resource Always an Interest Oil and gas E&P activity in Vietnam began
potential, its expanding economy and “Vietnam has always been an interest in the 1960s in the onshore Hanoi Trough
surging internal energy demand, the among international oil and gas com- formation. Attention later shifted to off-
diverse group of global operators active in panies,” said Suraya Tulot, Vietnam EP shore prospects. The first major success
the country, and the interest of national oil upstream researcher at IHS. “It is an occurred in 1986 with the discovery of
company Petrovietnam in expanding part- opportunity that companies are looking oil at the Bach Ho (White Tiger) field in
nerships with international E&P players. at, especially the independents.” the Cuu Long Basin by Vietsovpetro, a
At the same time, a limitation on this Almost all of Petrovietnam’s domestic joint venture (JV) formed in 1981 between
upside lies in the dispute between Vietnam upstream activity has been offshore in Zarubezhneft of the former Soviet Union
and China over territorial waters, which shallow water. From the beginning, the and Petrovietnam. Initial production
is affecting international investment in Cuu Long Basin has been the center of flowed from a Lower Miocene structure.
some E&P prospects. While sporadic ten- Vietnamese E&P. However, activity has However, deeper drilling into fractured
sions have arisen between the countries, spread to the Nom Con Son, Song Hong, granite basement rock yielded a much
Vietnam and China remain in discussions Phu Khanh, Phu Quoc, and Malay-Tho larger discovery, which was brought into
over the disputed areas. A peaceful reso- Chu basins, as well as others, and deep- production in 1988.
lution could benefit both countries and water development is getting under way. Granite basement rock is nonsedimen-
the oil and gas industry. Notably, well to “Vietnam is relatively underexplored,” tary and usually not associated with oil
the north of the disputed waters, Petro- Tulot said. “While the focus has been on and gas accumulations. However, in some
vietnam and China National Offshore Oil Cuu Long, there are opportunities in the cases this rock can hold hydrocarbons