PVEP secures $140m loan to develop block 15-2/01 in offshore Vietnam

State-owned PetroVietnam’s upstream arm PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corp., or PVEP, has received a $140 million loan to develop block 15-2/01 offshore southern Vietnam, PetroVietnam said in a statement Tuesday.

The loan is for seven years and was granted by five local banks – Ocean Bank, Vietnam International Bank, Military Bank, Lien Viet Post Bank and SeA Bank, the company statement said.

Block 15-2/01 is located in the Cuu Long Basin, the major oil producing basin in Vietnam, and is operated by PVEP and Canada-based Talisman via their joint-venture Thang Long Joint Operating Company. The JV was established in 2005 with PVEP holding 40 percent and Talisman 60 percent, PVEP said.

Block 15-2/01 is adjacent to block 16-1 which has the Te Giac Trang field that started crude production in August last year. The block is operated by Hoang Long JOC in which UK-based Soco International has 30.5 percent, PVEP has 41 percent and Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production 28.5 percent.

Thang Long JOC and the Hoang Long JOC, signed agreements in June this year to tie-in the Hai Su Trang and Hai Su Den fields in block 15-2/01 to the Te Giac Trang field in block 16-1.

Under the agreements, crude oil production from two fields in block 15-2/01 will be transported via a subsea pipeline system to the Te Giac Trang field facilities which has capacity to export 55,000 b/d of crude oil, the Thang Long JOC had said in June.

The tie-in helps to cut costs for PVEP and Talisman by using the available production facilities of Hoang Long JOC. Talisman’s vice president for Southeast Asia exploration, Lawrence Bernstein, had said in June that first oil from the Hai Su Trang and Hai Su Den fields was expected in the second half of 2013.

PetroVietnam, however, said Tuesday it expects first oil from the fields slightly earlier in the second quarter of next year.

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Category: ResourceAsia