Saudi Aramco is looking to invest in oil refining, petrochemicals, and oil product distribution in Vietnam, PetroVietnam said Oct. 30, a day after both state-owned companies had inked a collaboration framework agreement on oil and gas trading.
Aramco will soon send a working group to Vietnam to advance discussions on specific projects, its CEO Amin Nasser added.
The agreement was signed during a meeting between Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Aramco’s Amin Nasser on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh.
Chinh had welcomed Aramco’s plans to invest in Vietnam and encouraged the company to focus on large petrochemical and refining projects in the country.
As part of the deal, Aramco and PetroVietnam will also work together to generate additional value and push operations in areas like energy and petrochemical storage, supply, and trading.
“This agreement lays the foundation for potential collaboration across the hydrocarbon value chain,” said Aramco’s downstream president Mohammed Y. Al Qahtani.
“We look forward to exploring multiple opportunities with PetroVietnam that complement Aramco’s global downstream ambitions, contribute to PetroVietnam’s own strategy, and reinforce Asia’s importance in global energy and petrochemicals markets.”
This comes after Aramco said on Oct. 29 at the conference that it will grow its crude oil, natural gas, and petrochemical activities while reducing emissions. The company also signed a contract with the UK’s oil and gas services firm Wood for a natural gas expansion project.
Chinh had also met with UAE’s industry and advanced technology minister Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber Oct. 29 and urged UAE companies to invest in Vietnamese projects, such as establishing an oil storage facility to serve regional distribution.
Jaber, who is also the group CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company or ADNOC, had expressed interest to enhance cooperation with Vietnam across sectors like oil refining, LNG, and renewable energy projects at the meeting.
This comes as both countries signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) on Oct. 29, which will open up opportunities for cooperation in areas like agriculture, energy, technology, and logistics, according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Under the CEPA, the UAE will remove tariffs on 99% of Vietnam’s exports, while Hanoi will eliminate tariffs on 98.5% of the UAE’s exports.
UAE was the third largest exporter of LPG to Vietnam, supplying 294,718 mt of LPG in the first nine months of this year, down 30.5% year on year, latest Vietnamese customs data showed.
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