The Viet Nam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) yesterday kicked off projects to build a self-elevating drilling (Jack-up) rig and two anchor handling tugs.
The 60-metre self-elevating high-tech oil rig will be the first to be built in Viet Nam. PetroVietnam will invest US$180 million in the new rig, for which design and consultancy services will be provided by US-based Le Tourneau Technologies Inc.
"The project to build the new 60-metre oil rig, one of the nation’s major national projects, aims to meet the demand for oil exploration and exploitation in the country," said Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai.
Phung Dinh Thuc member of the management board and deputy general director of PetroVietnam, said when completed, the new rig will create "positive conditions" for Viet Nam’s oil and gas industry to improve its operations in the country’s continental shelf.
Thuc said construction of the rig will be completed in 32 months.
"The new Jack-up rig will also help [PetroVietnam] reduce rentals for this service rendered by foreign contractors, and to contribute to ensuring the country’s energy security," said Thuc.
Also yesterday, Petroleum Technical Service Corp (PTSC), a subsidiary of PetroVietnam, started building two anchor handling tug (AHT) vessels of 3,500HP and 4,700HP capacities respectively. These are the biggest such vessels to have been built by local companies.
Nguyen Hung Dung, general director of PTSC, said his company had invested in these vessels to provide services to the country’s first oil refinery in Dung Quat, central Quang Ngai Province, and later to other oil facilities at home and abroad.
The building of new oil service vessels will also help PTSC and Viet Nam’s ship-building industry to expand its service provision at home and at the same time to reduce ship-leasing costs, said Dung.
PTSC also signed ship-leasing contracts with Thang Long Joint Operating Co and Truong Son Joint Operating Co. The company also signed an Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Installation (EPCI) contract for the developing of Te Giac Trang Oilfield in the bloc 16.1 with the Hoang Long-Hoan Vu Joint Operating Company, a subsidiary of PetroVietnam.
PTSC also signed an EPCI contract with the UK’s Premier Oil for the developing of Chim Sao Oilfield in the bloc 12W.
Dung said these contracts were worth hundreds of millions of US dollar.
Source: VNS
