Functions of Vietnam Oil and Gas Group

Functions of Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Internet image)

This problem, LawNet answered as follows:

1. What is Vietnam Oil and Gas Group?

According to Clause 32, Article 3 of the Petroleum Law 2022, the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, which is the international trading name of “Tập đoàn Dầu khí Việt Nam”, is referred to as "PETROVIETNAM” and is abbreviated to PVN, is a state-owned enterprise of Vietnam.

2. Functions of Vietnam Oil and Gas Group

The functions of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group in Article 60 of the Petroleum Law 2022 in fundamental investigations of petroleum and petroleum operations are specified as follows:

- PVN shall conduct fundamental investigations of petroleum and perform petroleum operations in the role of a contractor signing a petroleum contract according to the regulations of the Petroleum Law 2022.

PVN participating together with partially state-owned subsidiaries of PVN in petroleum contracts as prescribed in Article 39 of the Petroleum Law 2022 shall not be considered to commit a violation against laws on managing and using the state capital to invest in production and business in the enterprises.

- After a project for fundamental investigations of petroleum is approved, PVN shall sign an agreement on conducting fundamental investigations of petroleum with an organization other than state authorities and enterprises presiding over carrying out the project.

- After a petroleum contract is approved, PVN shall sign and manage the contract with organizations and individuals performing petroleum operations; show its participating interest and priority over purchase of a part or whole of the rights of the contractor in the petroleum contract including special cases.

- PVN shall receive oil and gas fields, cluster and blocks from the contractor when the petroleum contract becomes invalid to select a new contractor to sign a new petroleum contract, manage and operate them.

- PVN shall extract oil and gas fields, groups of oil fields and blocks according to the resource extraction policies for salvaged oil and gas fields, groups of oil fields and blocks.

- In order to fulfill the functions prescribed in Clauses 2, 3, 4 and 5 of Article 60 of the Petroleum Law 2022, PVN shall have the rights and obligations prescribed in Article 61 and Article 62 of the Petroleum Law 2022.

3. Rights and obligations of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group

3.1. Rights of PVN

The rights of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group under the provisions of Article 61 of the Petroleum Law 2022 are as follows:

- Sign an agreement with an organization other than state authorities and enterprises presiding over carrying out the project for fundamental investigation of petroleum; manage and supervise the fulfillment of agreements related to collection of information, data and results of the fundamental investigation of petroleum as prescribed in the regulations of this Law and other regulations of relevant laws.

- Sign petroleum contracts with organizations and individuals to perform petroleum operations according to the regulations of the Petroleum Law 2022 and other regulations of relevant laws.

- Manage and supervise the execution of a petroleum contract; approve the operating program and AOBs; audit the cost of performing petroleum operations according to the regulations of the petroleum contract; approve the finalization of expenses under the petroleum contract.

- Approve programs of hydrocarbon exploration and adjusted programs of hydrocarbon exploration, additional programs of hydrocarbon exploration as prescribed in Article 44 of Article 61 of the Petroleum Law 2022.

- Approve adjusted ODPs, EDPs, FDPs and decommissioning plans prescribed in Clause 5 Article 46, Clause 5 Article 47, Clause 5 Article 48 and Clause 6 Article 50 of the Petroleum Law 2022; approve decommissioning plans prescribed in Clause 7 Article 50 of the Petroleum Law 2022.

- Supervise design and construction of petroleum installations in accordance with the regulations of a petroleum contract.

- Organize sales of products of the host country together with products of PVN which are extracted under a petroleum contract in the role of a contractor, and be permitted to sell these products together with other contractors in the petroleum contract as prescribed in Point e Clause 1 Article 58 of the Petroleum Law 2022.

- Manage petroleum operations; salvage and make additional investment to salvage oil and gas fields, groups of oil fields and blocks, and monitor and use assets related to the receipt of participating interests of contractors, receipt of oil and gas fields, groups of oil fields and blocks.

3.2. Obligations of the PVN 

The obligations of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group in Article 62 of the Petroleum Law 2022 are as follows:

-  Effectively and rationally manage and exploit petroleum resources, protect resources and environment, and ensure the safety in petroleum operations.

- Manage, store, preserve and use samples, documents, information, data and results of fundamental investigations of petroleum conducted by organizations apart from the state agencies and enterprises presiding over conducting fundamental investigation of petroleum;

Samples, documents, information and data collected during the process of performing petroleum operations and after ending petroleum contracts to ensure the right to access of organizations and individuals to such documents, information, data and results of the fundamental investigations of petroleum and petroleum operations.

- Manage and supervise the fulfillment of agreements on fundamental investigation of petroleum related to the exploitation of information, data and results of the fundamental investigation of petroleum in accordance with the regulations of law and the signed agreements.

- Strictly and effectively manage and supervise the execution of petroleum contracts in accordance with the regulations of law and the petroleum contract.

- Report petroleum operations to competent authorities periodically or upon request.

- Propose solutions and cooperate in making policies, strategies, and orientations related to the rational and effective exploitation of petroleum resources, protection of environmental resources and sustainable development at the request of competent authorities.

The Petroleum Law 2022 takes effect from July 1, 2023, replacing the Petroleum Law 2993 (amended 2000, 2008, 2018)

Vo Van Hieu

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