On 16th December 2021, Petrovietnam President and CEO Le Manh Hung had a meeting with Mr. Rajesh Kamath - CEO of Thyssenkrupp Group, India branch (Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions - TKIS) to evaluate the cooperation results between the two groups, at the same time discuss opportunities to expand cooperation between the two groups in the future.
Overview of the working session between Petrovietnam and the National Oil and Gas Group of India
At the meeting, the two sides listened to the report of Mr. Le Cu Tan - General Director of Petrovietnam Fertilizer and Chemicals Corporation (PVFCCo) on the construction project of the first chemical-tech NPK fertilizer plant in Vietnam using European technology in which Thyssenkrupp as the main contractor in the TkIS - PTSC joint venture has successfully completed the EPC package, put the plant into stable operation since August 2018, reached the capacity as design and has started to turn a profit in 2021. During the construction process, Mr. Le Cu Tan highly appreciated the cooperation of the joint venture in which Thyssenkrupp played the main role, although there has remained small points to be agreed so far, the two sides would make every effort to complete project settlement soon.
President and CEO gave a souvenir to the CEO of Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions
Petrovietnam President and CEO Le Manh Hung praised the NPK project implementation parties for bringing good results to PVFFCo's NPK production and business, and suggested that the parties agree and complete the final settlement in Quarter I/2022.
Regarding the expansion of cooperation and development relationship between the two groups, Petrovietnam President and CEO gave a brief introduction about the main areas of activities of Petrovietnam as well as some plans for the coming time, especially in the areas of upgrading oil refining products, petrochemical development, diversifying fertilizer, chemical, fiber products and energy transfer. Thyssenkrupp has had extensive experience in these areas and they are potential for cooperation development between the two sides.
Agreeing with the point of view of Petrovietnam President and CEO, TkIS also shared the Group’s main areas of activities and capacity profile, especially in the areas of refining technology, petrochemical, fertilizer, fiber, green energy with the trend leading projects in both scale and technology around the world; ranging from consulting, project management, design, construction and installation, operation...
After exchanging information, the two sides agreed that there were many opportunities to be exploited and developed to bring economic benefits to the two groups. In order to quickly deploy research cooperation to build opportunities, Petrovietnam President and CEO Le Manh Hung suggested the two sides set up a joint working group to realize the wish. Mr. Rajesh Kamath thanked Petrovietnam President and CEO for the suggestion and looked forward to the cooperation soon.
On 17th December 2021, Petrovietnam President and CEO Le Manh Hung had a meeting directly with Mr. Alok Kumar Gupta, the General Director of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation of India (ONGC). In an open and friendly atmosphere, the two sides discussed ONGC’s activities in the projects in which ONGC was directly operating or participating in financial investments.
President and CEO Le Manh Hung discussed work with Mr. AK Gupta, General Director of ONGC
Petrovietnam President and CEO Le Manh Hung emphasized ONGC’s role and early presence in the oil and gas activities in Vietnam as well as its important contributions to the Vietnamese economy in general and the development of Petrovietnam in particular. President and CEO Le Manh Hung affirmed that ONGC was an important partner and Petrovietnam, both as a representative of the host country and as an investment partner of ONGC, always accompanied and supported ONGC to the maximum in maintaining and expanding the area of activities on the continental shelf, the exclusive economic zone of Vietnam.
President and CEO Le Manh Hung proposed that in the coming time ONGC strongly promote oil and gas activities at the blocks where ONGC participated, fulfill work commitments on the basis of signed Oil and Gas Contracts. He also introduced a number of potential Open Contract Blocks for ONGC to consider participating in and expanding the area of activities.
On behalf of ONGC, Mr. AK Gupta thanked President and CEO Le Manh Hung for the attention to the country and the people of India; He affirmed that ONGC’s investment activities in Vietnam have been bringing great benefits to ONGC. Therefore, ONGC always considered Vietnam as a reliable and potential market. ONGC wanted to continue maintaining its presence in Vietnam and was very grateful for Petrovietnam’s appreciation as well as the introduction of the Open Blocks so that ONGC had the opportunity to expand its area of activities. ONGC undertook to soon complete the work committed in the signed Oil and Gas Contracts and appoint a group of experts to exchange directly, specifically with Petrovietnam to study information, assess the potential of oil and gas in the open blocks. Mr. Gupta emphasized that ONGC desperately needed Petrovietnam’s support in the coming time to help ONGC fulfill the goals of maintaining its presence and developing investment in Vietnam.
Petrovietnam President and CEO gave souvenir to General Director of ONGC
On 17th December, right before the Vietnam - India Business Forum, Petrovietnam President and CEO Le Manh Hung had a meeting and exchanged work with 02 senior leaders of Essar Group, i.e. Mr. Ravi Ruia - President and Mr. Prashant Ruia - CEO at Leela Palace Hotel International Convention Center, New Delhi.
Mr. Prashant Ruia, CEO of Essar Group introduced an overview of Essar Group
As introduced to Petrovietnam President and CEO Le Manh Hung by Mr. Prashant Ruia, Essar is a multi-industry family group with an estimated market value of US$15 billion and an annual profit of about US$2.2 billion. The main areas of activities are oil and gas, including oil and gas production, petrochemical technology, liquefied petroleum gas, distribution of liquefied petroleum gas; mining, metallurgy; technology; infrastructure development…
Specifically about activities in Vietnam, Mr. Ravi Ruia - President of Essar shared that he was very proud to be the Petroleum Contractor participating in the exploration activities and having discovered important gas reserves at Block 114. The discovery played a very important role for Essar in the strategy of developing the value chain from oil and gas exploration - production to processing, with the opportunity to bring great value to Essar’s investment in the Asia-Pacific region. Essar President affirmed that Essar has given a lot of priority to completing the assessment of reserves at Ken Bau field in order to move to the stage of production commercialization, bring cash flow to stakeholders soon.
Petrovietnam President and CEO Le Manh Hung congratulated the success of Essar Group in all areas of activities and highly appreciated Essar’s initiative and activeness in the process of searching, discovering and completing the evaluation to bring the Ken Bau gas field into the commercial and development stage. On the basis of initial information on the expected reserve, gas quality and favorable location of the field, Petrovietnam completely agreed with the view that all conditions would be completed soon to put the gas field into operation; as the foundation for developing a complex of subsequent industries in the chain, including gas transportation, petrochemicals from gas and power generation. Petrovietnam President and CEO committed to work with the Operator of Block 114 and Essar to evaluate and consider the necessary conditions and provide the best support within the scope and influence of Petrovietnam for project development.
In addition to working in the field of oil and gas exploration and production, Mr. Prashant Ruia also shared great business opportunities, especially in the fields of petrochemicals and carbon emission reduction, in the context that countries around the world including Vietnam and India have committed to a roadmap to balance carbon emissions at the COP 26 in Glasgow just held this year. Essar CEO said that the Group was investing a lot in the petrochemical sector and participating in large-scale, international projects and from the trust in exchanging business views with Petrovietnam, Essar was ready to introduce to Petrovietnam the opportunity to cooperate with Essar in those important projects.
Besides the above main activities, Essar was also very successful in investing in other fields such as extracting methane from coal deposits deep underground, manufacturing trucks using LNG fuel. They are good opportunities Essar wanted to share with Petrovietnam to take advantage of to increase value through investment in developing niche products practical with socio-economic conditions.
Highly appreciating the dynamism and vision of Essar Group, Petrovietnam President and CEO Le Manh Hung shared that Petrovietnam’s vision, goals and strategies had a lot in common with Essar Group’s in the context of energy transition, digital transformation was happening very fast globally and the need to change the business model of large economic groups. That perception opened up many opportunities for the two groups to cooperate and develop investment and business opportunities together. In order to immediately realize the opportunities, Mr. Le Manh Hung and Mr. Prashant Ruia agreed that the two sides would set up a Joint Working Group to research and survey information of each party, and immediately identify potential investment opportunities, make a list of opportunities in order of implementation priority. President and CEO Le Manh Hung officially invited Mr. Ravi Ruia and Mr. Prashant Ruia to visit Petrovietnam as soon as possible.
On the same day, 17th December, Petrovietnam President and CEO Le Manh Hung attended and witnessed the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Research and Training between BSR and IOC. IOC is the largest state-owned corporation of India and is owned by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. The business of IOC covers the entire hydrocarbon chain from refining, transportation, product distribution to exploration, production of oil and natural gas to petrochemicals. In addition, IOC has also been investing heavily in alternative energy sources and is very strong in operating back-end plants with global operating staff. Currently, IOC owns 11 out of 23 Refineries, accounts for nearly 50% market share of India’s petroleum products with sales of about 80 million tons, owns more than 32% of the national refining capacity and 71% downstream pipeline capacity.
Overview of the signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding on Research and Training between BSR and IOC
Petrovietnam President and CEO Le Manh Hung highly appreciated the efforts of the two sides and the signing of MOU between BSR and IOC was completely in line with the development strategy of Petrovietnam. Petrovietnam is currently the leading group in Vietnam in the oil and gas value chain, participating in the investment and operation of the two largest oil refineries in Vietnam, providing over 70% of the country’s demand. Research and training activities are an urgent need and with proven capacity, scale and position, IOC is definitely a reliable partner to help BSR improve operational capacity, optimize costs and looking for suitable options for the future.
During the visit of Vietnam’s National Assembly Chairman to India this time, it can be affirmed that Petrovietnam has achieved many good results, full of confidence and expectation about the future cooperation between Petrovietnam and major partners of India.