At a recent symposium on measures to boost the development of Vietnam’s mechanic sectors, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc stressed that the Government will establish a market for mechanic firms to develop, including facilitating the sector to seek for domestic and overseas markets for the country’s oil and gas engineering sector’s products.

Hai Thach 1 rig of Bien Dong 01 project. (Photo: VNA)

By now, the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) has built a modern oil and gas manufacturing industry able to effectively meet the needs for exploration and exploitation in replacement of the products it previously had to import.

More than 30 years ago, the Vietnam – Russia joint venture Vietsovpetro had to bring its rig platform from Baku (Azerbaijan) to the offshore of Ba Ria – Vung Tau province for assembly in service of oil and gas exploration and exploitation in Bach Ho oilfield. But now the oil and gas sector has become able to manufacture, install and operate rigs for oil and gas exploration and exploitation on Vietnam’s continental shelf. Besides, many products of the oil and gas mechanic sector have been exported to the world, helping bring foreign hard currencies to the country.

After a process of forming and development, the manufacturing sector of the PetroVietnam has gradually mastered the technology to make the great development.

A marker of the development is the successful manufacturing of self-elevating rigs Tam Dao 03 and Tam Dao 05 at a depth of over 90 metres. Since their commissioning, those rigs have been operating stably and safely. The manufacturing has brought Vietnam into the list of the very few countries that successfully produce modern rigs of international standards and, at the same time, affirmed the trademark of the engineering services by the oil and gas sector in replacement of the import of deep-water rigs. This is an engineering product with the application of high technology for the first time in Vietnam, with a localisation rate of 35 percent.

Besides, the oil and gas engineering sector has grown into being able to meet the requirement for manufacturing and assembly of rigs for foreign oil and gas companies.

In 2014, the upper part of the rig of the HRD technology with a total weight of nearly 11,000 tons meeting international standards on technology was successfully produced by the PTSC M&C in 17 months, ahead of the schedule, with absolute safety, and won high recognition by the Indian investor ONGC, partners and supervisors for its quality. The project is the biggest implemented by a Vietnamese firm for foreign customers after its winning of an international bidding against many competitors from India and the Middle East.

With the above-said achievements, the oil and gas engineering sector has been, according to PetroVietnam, approaching, applying and mastering the technology on manufacturing and assembling oil and gas projects which require high precision and skills, as well as strict standards on quality and safety.

With the success of the Bien Dong 01 project, the miracle recorded by Vietnam’s oil and gas sector stands as clear evidence of the inner strength of the sector in general and of the oil and gas engineering industry in particular.

A PetroVietnam representative said the Bien Dong 01 project is considered the most complex of the oil and gas sector in every aspect. All of its detail designs, purchases and manufacturing on the shore were implemented in 30 months, a record not so many contractors in the world can reach. The successful manufacturing and installation of the 133m-underwater oil and gas rig for the Bien Dong 01 project ahead of the schedule has affirmed the stuff and wisdom of experts, engineers and technicians of Vietnam’s oil and gas manufacturing industry, making important contributions to the oil and gas exploiting and processing industry and, at the same time, affirming and safeguarding the Motherland’s sacred sovereignty.

The PetroVietnam representative also revealed that in the time to come, oil and gas services in general and engineering in particular will continue to face with objective difficulties, challenges and impact, yet it will continue to reap new successes, thus affirming the stuff and aspiration of the Vietnamese people in the integration period.