PetroVietnam Exploration and Production Corporation (PVEP) signed on Jan 18 a credit agreement with 17 foreign banks to borrow $300 million to serve its oil and gas projects at home and abroad in the next five years.The loan which has a five-year term will facilitate PVEP’s increasing exploration and exploitation activities with total investment in 2013 reaching $1.9 billion, PVEP said on its website.The lenders include Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., BNP Paribas, Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd., Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited, Standard Chartered Bank and United Overseas Bank Limited.PVEP, a unit of the state-run Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group or PetroVietnam (PVN), is conducting 46 oil and gas projects at home and 19 others in 15 countries worldwide, mostly in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and Middle Asia.This year, PVEP aims to tap 3.53 million metric tons of crude oil and nearly 1.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas and raise its oil equivalent reserves to 12.5 million metric tons. It also targets to tap seven new fields and further develop the offshore Junin-2 oil and gas block in Venezuela.The PetroVietnam affiliate plans to invest $16.5 billion in upstream oil and gas exploration for the 2011-2015 period.PVEP made an estimated VND30.3 trillion in pre-tax profit on revenue of VND64.7 trillion in 2012, surpassing targets by 45% and 20%, respectively. The group tapped 2.13 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 5.7 million metric tons of oil equivalent during the year, meeting 104% and 107% of the whole year’s targets, respectively. (www.pvep.com.vn [1] Jan 18, Dau Tu – Investment Jan 21 p2, Sai Gon Giai Phong – Saigon Liberation Jan 21 p3)
