CAPITAL: HANOI
Conoco Inc. and partners completed a step-out well that extended the Rang Dong oil field on Block 15-2 off Viet Nam. The well tested 8,500 b/d of oil from one zone.
The field, 120 miles southwest of Ho Chi Minh City in the Cuu Long basin, lies in 165 ft of water. The 400,000-acre block is near Bach Ho and Ruby fields.
Conoco said Rang Dong production increased to 50,000 b/d with the completion of a development well that added 11,000 b/d.
It raised its interest in Block 15-2 from 30% to 36%. Other partners were Japanese Viet Nam Petroleum Co. with 46.5% and PetroVietnam with 17.5%.
Conoco held interests in five blocks off Viet Nam. They totaled 5.75 million acres.
Unocal Corp. had made a discovery, Ca Voi, in Block 52/97 off southwestern Viet Nam. Unocal said it had drilled four wells to confirm the earlier Kim Long gas find in Block B.
In addition, Unocal said it and its partners in Blocks B and 48/95 (also known as Block A) anticipated gas production from Block B would begin at 200 MMcfd of gas in 2005.
The Ca Voi discovery well, 52/97-CV-1X, in 215-280 ft of water 175 miles west of Ca Mau, found 107 ft of net gas pay, said Unocal, which called the find "significant."
Unocal said that since the Kim Long trend was within 10 miles of Ca Voi, the fields could be developed together, taking advantage of shared facilities.
Unocal said four successful wells in the Kim Long trend implied the trend was gas-bearing for more than 21 miles over Blocks B and 52/97. The wells averaged net pay of 136 ft.
A Conoco wildcat on Block 15-1 flowed 12,621 b/d in tests from three zones. The first wildcat well on Block 15-1 flowed 5,655 b/d from the fractured basement, 1,366 b/d from the Upper Oligocene sand, and 5,600 b/d from the Lower Micoene sands.
Conoco had a 23.25% interest, PetroVietnam 50%, Korea National Oil Corp. 14.25%, SK Corp. 9%, and Geopetrol 3.5%.
Cuu Long said it planned to drill two more wells in the same area in 2001.
The block, near Bach Ho, Ruby and Rang Dong fields, is 180 km southeast of Ho Chi Minh City in 47 m of water.
Swedish independent Lundin Oil AB planned to increase production at Bunga Kekwa field in the PM3 offshore block shared by Malaysia and Viet Nam.
Bunga Kekwa field had been on stream since July 1997.
The operator reperforated two producing wells and planned to drill two new ones in early 2001 to bring output to 17,000 b/d.
A $520 million second phase would bring production to 40,000 b/d of oil and condensate and 250 MMcfd of natural gas by September 2003.
Lundin Oil had 41.44% in Block PM3, Petronas 46.06%, and PetroVietnam 12.5%.
A BP consortium and Viet Nam were negotiating a $1.5 billion project under which BP would develop Lan Tay and Lan Do fields, with estimated reserves of 2 tcf. Gas would be moved from the fields, off the south coast, through a 400 km pipeline to three power pants, with a total capacity of 2,200 Mw, near Ho Chi Minh City. Deliveries could begin as early as 2002.
Downstream
Partners in the VietRoss refinery were planning to begin construction of a 6.5 million tonne/year plant in 2001 at Dung Quat, Quang Ngai Province.
The VietRoss project was a Vietnamese-Russian joint venture founded by Russian foreign trade association Zarubezhneft and state-run company PetroVietnam.
Products would include gasoline, jet kerosine, diesel, fuel oil, propylene, and liquefied petroleum gas. It was expected the refinery would supply 50% of the country's domestic needs.
Japan's Marubeni Corp. withdrew from a joint project to build a polyvinyl chloride plant in Baria-Vung province, 85 km southeast of Ho Chi Minh City. The remaining partners were proceeding. They were Petronas, PetroVietnam, and Tramatsuco.
They created Phu My Plastics & Chemicals Co. (PMPC), a joint venture to undertake the project. PetroVietnam was to hold 43%, and Tramatsuco, an entity controlled by Baria-Vung Tau province, 7%.
PMPC awarded the $48.6 million engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning contract to Samsung Engineering Co. of South Korea.
The plant, to be completed in 2002, would have 100,000 tonnes/year of PVC capacity. Vinyl chloride monomer feedstock would come from a VCM plant in Malaysia owned jointly by Petronas and Mitsui VCM (M) Sdn. Bhd.
PVC output would be used to meet domestic demand, displacing imports.
BP Petco Ltd., a joint venture between BP and Vietnam Petroleum Import-Export Corp (Petrolimex), began construction in late 2000 on a 50,000-tonne/year liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant in Ho Chi Minh City.
The first phase, producing 15,000 tonnes/year, was due completion by late 2001 at a cost of $2 million.
Phases two and three were due to be finished by 2005. Vietnam's LPG demand had been growing about 45%/year since 1996, with 2000 demand near 350,000 tonnes.
