India's top energy officials and executives are currently visiting Vietnam as BP prepares to offload its upstream assets in the country.
India's oil minister Murli Deora and petroleum secretary S Sundareshan are heading up a delegation of ministry officials and state-owned oil companies as Delhi looks to new opportunities to partner Vietnam in the oil and gas sector. The delegation is visiting Hanoi as part of this week's annual meeting of east Asian energy ministers, but BP's disposal of assets is likely to feature in discussions.
BP confirmed this week that it plans to exit the Nam Con Son gas project, as it looks to raise $10bn this year to meet liabilities related to the Macondo oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. India's state-owned upstream ONGC is already a partner in the Nam Con Son venture, holding a majority 45pc stake in block 6.1 that holds the Lan Tay and Lan Do gas fields. BP is the operator with 35pc and state-owned PetroVietnam has 20pc. The project includes the associated 390km Nam Con Son pipeline and 720MW Phu My 3 power plant. Combined production from the fields was 63mn ft /d (650mn m /yr) last year, BP said.
ONGC would be a frontrunner in any bidding, especially since Chinese state-owned oil firms India's main competitor for foreign upstream assets would be not welcome given Hanoi and Beijing's continuing border dispute over maritime boundaries in the South China Sea. ONGC has had a presence in Vietnam since 1988 with block 6.1, expanding its upstream assets in 2006 with two deepwater offshore blocks in the Phu Khanh basin.
Fellow Indian state-owned energy firms IOC, Oil India and Gail are also using the visit to Vietnam to be on lookout for opportunities in Vietnam or partner their Vietnamese counterparts in third countries, India's petroleum ministry said.
India's oil minister Murli Deora and petroleum secretary S Sundareshan are heading up a delegation of ministry officials and state-owned oil companies as Delhi looks to new opportunities to partner Vietnam in the oil and gas sector. The delegation is visiting Hanoi as part of this week's annual meeting of east Asian energy ministers, but BP's disposal of assets is likely to feature in discussions.
BP confirmed this week that it plans to exit the Nam Con Son gas project, as it looks to raise $10bn this year to meet liabilities related to the Macondo oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. India's state-owned upstream ONGC is already a partner in the Nam Con Son venture, holding a majority 45pc stake in block 6.1 that holds the Lan Tay and Lan Do gas fields. BP is the operator with 35pc and state-owned PetroVietnam has 20pc. The project includes the associated 390km Nam Con Son pipeline and 720MW Phu My 3 power plant. Combined production from the fields was 63mn ft /d (650mn m /yr) last year, BP said.
ONGC would be a frontrunner in any bidding, especially since Chinese state-owned oil firms India's main competitor for foreign upstream assets would be not welcome given Hanoi and Beijing's continuing border dispute over maritime boundaries in the South China Sea. ONGC has had a presence in Vietnam since 1988 with block 6.1, expanding its upstream assets in 2006 with two deepwater offshore blocks in the Phu Khanh basin.
Fellow Indian state-owned energy firms IOC, Oil India and Gail are also using the visit to Vietnam to be on lookout for opportunities in Vietnam or partner their Vietnamese counterparts in third countries, India's petroleum ministry said.
