The PetroVietnam Exploration and Production Corporation (PVEP) looks set to sign between five and seven more contracts inside and outside the country from now to the end of the year.

This was revealed by President of the PVEP Members’ Council Tran Duc Chinh at a press briefing in Hanoi on July 20.

In the first half of the year, PVEP inked oil and gas contracts for block Kossor in Uzbekistan, block 51 Malay-Tho Chu, block 09.2/10 Cuu Long basin, block 46/07 Malay-Tho Chu, block 01/10-02/10 Cuu Long basin and block Junin 2 in Venezuela.

During the period, the corporation also signed an agreement on the transfer of block 07-03 Nam Con Son with Premier Oil.

On June 29, PVEP inked a deal with a Venezuelan partner on the establishment of the Joint Venture PetroMacarreo Company to exploit the offshore Junin-2 oil and gas block.

Chinh said while concentrating on exploiting oilfields found in the country’s lowland, PVEP is calling for foreign investment to back its exploration and exploitation of untapped oilfields offshore in deep waters to raise oil and gas reserves and output and at the same time defend the nation’s security and sovereignty at sea.

As investing abroad is costly and coupled with high risk, PVEP said it will diversify its investment structure to include exploring, exploiting, establishing exploitation partnerships, or buying oilfields for self-exploitation.

At present, PVEP is carrying out 20 oil and gas exploration and exploitation projects in 20 countries, including two projects that have already churned out oil products for the home country.

The corporation is expected to bring home oil products from the BC 3 project in Algeria and the Junin 2 project from Venezuela in 2012.

PVEP said it is striving to increase the country’s oil reserves to 122 million tonnes and obtain an output of 44 million tonnes, including 34 million tonnes from local oilfields and 10 million tonnes from overseas oilfields in the 2011-2015 period./.