Unocal Corporation said that its Vietnam subsidiaries have filed a declaration of commercial discovery with PetroVietnam, the state oil company, for three natural gas fields offshore southwest Vietnam. The declaration comes after a string of 10 successful exploration wells drilled on blocks B and 52/97, including four wells drilled last year. The declaration covers resources that have been discovered in the Kim Long, Ac Quy and Ca Voi natural gas fields. Based on the drilling to date, Unocal believes the fields have a combined gross discovery volume of 2.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas. This resource volume is in a core area that would allow the three fields to be developed in a single program using shared offshore facilities.
Unocal estimates the gross unrisked resource potential, including predicted field extensions and yet undrilled prospective trends, for the combined contract areas (Blocks B, 52/97 and 48/95) at 5 to 8 tcf. More drilling is planned.
EVN (Vietnam’s state electricity company) and Unocal will soon begin a pre-feasibility study for an electricity generating plant that would be built at O Mon in the central Mekong Delta. PetroVietnam and Unocal are also completing an initial study on a 236-mile-long (380-kilometer) pipeline from the offshore gas fields to O Mon.
Unocal and its co-venturers have signed two production-sharing contracts (PSCs) with PetroVietnam covering Blocks B, 48/95 and 52/97 offshore southwestern Vietnam. Unocal subsidiaries serve as operator for all three PSC areas. Other co-venturers include subsidiaries of Mitsui Oil Exploration Company (MOECO) of Japan and PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP) of Thailand. PetroVietnam, through its subsidiary PetroVietnam Exploration and Production Company (PVEP), holds working interests in Blocks B and 48/95 and the rights to acquire additional interest in both PSCs.
