Gazprom, Petrovietnam Increase Cooperation For Exploration In Arctic

Gazprom Neft signed on Monday a series of agreements to strengthen cooperation with Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) for exploration and production in the Arctic, as Russia is trying to both increase cooperation with Hanoi and its focus on the Pechora Sea. 

‘Alexander Dyukov, Chairman of the Management Board of Gazprom Neft, and Nguyen Xuan Son, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Petrovietnam, signed a memorandum to extend their collaboration on joint oil and gas exploration, production and development projects on the Pechora Sea shelf’ reads the note, adding that Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev took part to the signing ceremony.  

Gazprom Neft and Petrovietnam decided to join forces and to come up with a list of priority oil and gas fields by the end of 2015 for the Pechora Sea, a sea at the northwest of Russia, the southeastern part of the Barents Sea. 

‘The projects will be implemented via joint ventures of Gazprom Neft and Petrovietnam, in which the stakes of each party will be negotiated’ explains the press release, which adds that Gazprom Neft is proceeding with its investment plans in Vietnam - it plans to acquire a 49% stake in the Vietnamese Dung Quay refinery. 

Over the last hours, the Russian government also spoke about the possibility of dropping the dollar for the transactions between the countries, switching to national currencies (Rouble, Dong) in bilateral trade.  

On Monday, Gazprom said it plans to sell its 10.52% stake in Germany’s Verbundnetz Gas (VNG). According to Reuters, the move is coherent with russian compay’s strategy to pull back from operations in Europe.