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will also be brought into the fold. that PetroVietnam Power and a Vietnamese con-
Production is expected to reach 25mn tonnes struction firm had signed an MoU with Japan’s
per year (500,000 bpd) by 2024, rising to 1mn Tokyo Gas and Marubeni to build an LNG-to-
bpd by 2027 and 2.3mn bpd by 2030, and Ros- power project. The facility would be built in Viet-
neft has also suggested that up to 50mn tpy of nam’s Quang Ninh Province at an estimated cost
LNG could also be developed from the fields’ of JPY200bn ($1.9bn). The power plant would
gas. These supplies will be delivered to markets have a capacity of 1,500 MW and start-up is tar-
on tankers via Russia’s Northern Sea Route. geted for 2026.
Rosneft estimates Vostok Oil’s liquids Then, on November 21, General Electric
resource base at 6bn barrels of oil equivalent (GE) signed an MoU with Vietnam’s EVN
(boe), although its fields have not been inde- Genco3 to develop the Long Son LNG-to-power
pendently appraised, creating doubts about the project in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. GE will be
company’s lofty targets for future output. contracted to install the gas turbine technology
Analysts at BCS Global Markets (GM) com- and certain other equipment, according to US
mented that the deal was good for Rosneft’s stock government officials on a visit to Hanoi.
“more for signalling that the ambitious project is That project is being planned to start up by
‘a go’ than for the size of the investment, which 2025.
itself has yet to be fully determined.” The MoUs come as various other projects
“Attracting a significant amount of foreign are also advancing in Vietnam, where power
investment to the Vostok Oil project has been demand is rising and new capacity is urgently
a Rosneft goal from day one, and this deal is needed.
important more for getting the process started,”
they said. If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
the global LNG sector then please click here for
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping NewsBase’s GLNG Monitor.
the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then please
click here for NewsBase’s FSU Monitor. Latin America: Argentina’s incentives for
gas producers
GLNG: Steps forward for Asian LNG pro- Argentina’s government has kept tight currency
jects controls in place for more than a year in the
Over the past week, significant developments hope of protecting foreign reserves following a
have come for LNG projects in Asia, on both collapse in the peso, the national currency. Last
the import and export front. Media reported week, though, the Central Bank said that natural
on November 23 that Chevron had restarted gas producers taking part in the country’s new
Train 2 at its Gorgon LNG export terminal in “Gas Plan” would have free access to the official
Australia. The train was shut down in May for foreign exchange market.
scheduled maintenance and subsequently had The “Gas Plan,” a much-anticipated stimulus
to be kept offline for repairs after weld quality plan designed to lift natural gas production, was
issues affecting its propane heat exchangers – or unveiled by President Alberto Fernández last
kettles – were discovered. month. This package of measures, known as Plan
Chevron had initially aimed to restart the Gas 4, calls for the national oil company (NOC)
train in September but needed additional time YPF to invest $1.8bn in gas production over the
to complete the repairs. The super-major will next three years.
now take Trains 1 and 3 offline – one after the YPF, which suspended nearly all drilling
other – to inspect their kettles for similar issues activity in the spring following the intro-
and carry out any repairs that may be neces- duction of strict public health measures, has
sary. Preparations for shutting down Train 1 are spoken positively about the new forex policy.
reported to be underway. Santiago Tanoira, the state-owned company’s
Separately, two separate projects that will vice-president of gas and energy, praised the
have an LNG import component were reported new incentives, saying: “We are returning to
over the past week to be advancing in Vietnam. drill for gas.”
On November 19, Nikkei Asian Review reported Meanwhile, Pan American Energy (PAE),

Week 47 25•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P17