The Times of India THURSDAY, JULY 04, 2002
Petrovietnam, BP discuss $800 m gas hub REUTERS HANOI: State oil firm Petrovietnam and Britain's BP Plc are considering creating a gas processing hub for Vietnam's Nam Con Son basin, which could involve investment of about $800 million, a BP official said on Monday. The official said talks between Petrovietnam, BP and other foreign firms interested in developing the gas-rich area off southern Vietnam had been under way for several months but were still at an early conceptual stage. The investment -- a rough provisional estimate -- would be in addition to a $1.3 billion integrated project that BP is already involved in the Nam Con Son basin, said the official, who did not want to be identified. "Petrovietnam is leading a group of people who have an interest in the basin," he said. "They are talking about how they could develop it in the most effective way. "That could mean developing some kind of processing hub for the basin. Also they are considering the expansion of the current Nam Con Son pipeline." The official said BP was an "active" member of the group, but investment in any such project would come from all parties involved. He did not name the other foreign firms. "The group is talking about some rough cost estimate of about $800 million for the developing of the whole basin. That would include the processing hub and expansion of the pipeline. "The gas would come to the one main hub for processing before it is exported or transported somewhere else." He said it had not been decided where a processing hub would be located, although it would be in the vicinity of the basin, or what the timeframe for construction should be. Alan Johnson, a minister of state at Britain's Department of Trade and Industry, who was visiting Vietnam on Monday, had been briefed by BP on the plan, the official said. Earlier on Monday, Johnson initialled an agreement on investment protection with the Vietnamese government, which he said should boost business confidence in the Southeast Asian country. Britain is the largest non-Asian investor in Vietnam, largely due to BP's existing project in the Nam Con Son basin. That project involves the development of the Lan Tay and Lan Do gas fields in Vietnam's block 06.1, a 400-km (250-mile) pipeline to shore and a gas-fired powerplant. BP's foreign partners in the venture are India's ONGC Videsh, a subsidiary of the state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp, and Conoco Inc. Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved
