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Vietnam offers India seven oil blocks for offshore exploration
Indrani Bagchi, TNN | Nov 20, 2013, 09.50PM IST
NEW DELHI: India has been offered seven oil blocks for offshore exploration on the South China Sea by Vietnam, a move that could pit New Delhi's commercial interests against China's territorial interests in the sea.
On Wednesday — the last day of his state visit to India — Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, signed eight agreements with India covering education, defence and energy. In a significant agreement between Petrovietnam and OVL, the two countries are set for deeper cooperation in development of petroleum. OVL is given new blocks for oil and gas, while PetroVietnam has been invited to participate in open blocks in India and third countries.
The MoU will last for three years, but the terms of the agreement are not yet available. But sources said Vietnam is clearly looking at production-sharing agreements with OVL in these new blocks. When India wanted to abandon oil block 128 off Vietnam in the South China Sea last year because there's really no oil there, Hanoi asked New Delhi to stay back until 2014. This was at a time when China was flexing its muscles over Beijing's claims in the South China Sea.
Indrani Bagchi, TNN | Nov 20, 2013, 09.50PM IST
NEW DELHI: India has been offered seven oil blocks for offshore exploration on the South China Sea by Vietnam, a move that could pit New Delhi's commercial interests against China's territorial interests in the sea.
On Wednesday — the last day of his state visit to India — Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, signed eight agreements with India covering education, defence and energy. In a significant agreement between Petrovietnam and OVL, the two countries are set for deeper cooperation in development of petroleum. OVL is given new blocks for oil and gas, while PetroVietnam has been invited to participate in open blocks in India and third countries.
The MoU will last for three years, but the terms of the agreement are not yet available. But sources said Vietnam is clearly looking at production-sharing agreements with OVL in these new blocks. When India wanted to abandon oil block 128 off Vietnam in the South China Sea last year because there's really no oil there, Hanoi asked New Delhi to stay back until 2014. This was at a time when China was flexing its muscles over Beijing's claims in the South China Sea.