22-08-08 State oil group PetroVietnam plans to acquire oil and gas assets in Uzbekistan as part of its efforts to meet soaring domestic energy demand, the government said.
PetroVietnam signed a co-operation pact with its counterpart Uzbekneftegaz, paving the way for negotiations to buy oil and gasfields in the former Soviet republic, the Industry and Trade Ministry said.

PetroVietnam has been stepping up efforts to expand its oil and gas exploration overseas including in Iran, Iraq, Mongolia, Algeria, Indonesia, Russia and South America, as it looks to secure supply for its planned refineries.
In Iraq the company has joined forces with Indonesia's state oil company Pertamina to explore the possibility of co-operating on managing oil and gas blocks. The companies have assets in Iraq and currently work together on tripartite exploration with Petronas of Malaysia in their own countries.

Pertamina president Ari Soemarno met with PetroVietnam general director Tran Ngoc Canh and Indonesian Minister of Energy & Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro to discuss options. Soemarno said PetroVietnam and Pertamina were also eyeing possible collaboration in upstream operations in Ecuador, Latin America and South Africa.
In September PetroVietnam is expected to sign an agreement with Venezuela's state oil firm PdVSA for a new exploration project in the oil-rich Orinoco basin in eastern Venezuela.

Despite being a net oil product importer now as it lacks major refineries, Vietnam wants to be an exporter of the products after 2015 when three major oil refineries come onstream, PetroVietnam officials have said.
The country's first refinery, the 140,000 bpd Dung Quat plant, is expected to start operation in February next year.