Gazprom-Vietnam: All Hands on Deck in South China Sea

(MOSCOW) — Russia’s energy giant Gazprom launched production at a major natural gas field in northern Russia while President Vladimir Putin asked the company to look into a growing role of shale gas producers. Gazprom inaugurated the Bovanenkovskoye gas field on the Yamal peninsula that is expected to yield 46 billion cubic meters of gas next year, and 115 billion cubic meters a year in 2017. Reserves at Bovanenkovskoye, which is situated in the permafrost zone, are estimated at 4.9 trillion cubic meters. The field is key to Gazprom’s plans to expand Europe-bound exports.

Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, better known as PetroVietnam, have launched the nation’s first indigenously built 300 foot-high drilling rig and Moc Tinh oil platform. Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and Vietnamese ministers and agency heads, along representatives from the Russian Embassy and the Russian Consulate General in Vietnam attended the launching ceremony at Vietnam’s Vung Tau petroleum port. The ceremony was held on the 50th anniversary of PetroVietnam, VietnamPlus news agency reported.

It is hardly a secret that Beijing’s claims to nearly all of the South China Sea’s waters have elicited concern from Southeast Asian nations.Now Russia’s state-owned natural gas giant Gazprom is upping the ante by announcing that it intends to start gas production off Vietnam’s coast in June. Gazprom Deputy CEO Vitaly Markelov told Gazprom magazine, “It is planned to build 16 exploitation wells to develop the deposits. Currently, the project is at the deposit development infrastructure stage.

By Emerging Money: By Mitchell Hall Russia's state-owned natural gas giant Gazprom (OGXPY.PK) will take over natural gas trading and storage businesses it jointly owns with the world's largest chemical company, Germany's BASF (BASFY.PK), as part of an asset swap meant to avoid further winter supply disruptions to Europe that have occurred in recent years.

By Energy and Capital:Russian oil and gas giant Gazprom (GZPFY.PK) is taking advantage of the high demand from Asian markets. On Monday, the company announced its plans to invest a total of 1.2 trillion roubles ($38 billion) to develop a natural gas field and build a pipeline to ship the resource to Asian nations like China and Japan.

Vietnam on Sunday inked a deal with firms from Japan and Kuwait to build an oil refinery complex worth nearly $9 billion as part of efforts to meet its growing energy needs. The Nghi Son refinery, which is due to start operating by 2017 in Thanh Hoa province, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Hanoi, will turn Kuwaiti oil into petrol and other petroleum products.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a new national Five-Year Plan emphasizing PetroVietnam increased production. The new governmental dictates provide for the state-owned Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN), more commonly known as PetroVietnam, to increase production by up to 20 percent a year. These new government production figures for PetroVietnam would boost output to oil and gas reserves and petroleum exploration output by 35-40 million tons and 23-34 million tons of oil per year, according to VietnamPlus news agency.

For analysts nervously contemplating the Russian Federation’s growing global energy presence, bête noire #1 is the state owned natural gas giant Gazprom.Rosneft is an integrated oil company whose majority interest is owned by the Russian government.