Petrovietnam inks PSC for block offshore Vietnam

The state-owned Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) and its joint venture partners have signed a product sharing contract (PSC) for a block in Vietnam’s Cuu Long basin.

The block in question, Block 15-1, is said to hold special strategic significance for the exploration and exploitation activities of the Vietnamese player and its affiliate, Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Corporation (PVEP).

Block 15-1 is located in the Cuu Long basin in southern Vietnam. It comprises the Black Lion, Golden Lion, Brown Lion, and White Lion producing oil and gas fields. As of 2024, the total output of the project is over 426 million barrels and over 216 billion cubic feet of gas, bringing in total revenue to more than $30 billion, notes Petrovietnam.

The field’s operator is the CuuLong Joint Operating Company (JOC), comprising PVEP, KNOC, SK, Perenco, and Geopetrol.

The Vietnamese player believes the newly signed contract will facilitate the continued exploitation of existing fields, while opening up opportunities to discover and develop new potential structures in the area. 

Petrovietnam’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Le Manh Hung, said that the group will now prioritize the implementation of Phase 2B of the White Lion project, which is expected to deliver up to 300 million cubic feet of gas per day. 

This comes on the heels of a license extension for two blocks in the moderate to deepwater Phu Khanh Basin, northeast of the Cuu Long Basin, obtained by Pharos Energy. The two-year extension of the PSC for blocks 125 and 126 extends the exploration period to 2027.