By Vu Trong Khanh

HANOI--Vietnam Oil & Gas Group, or Petrovietnam, and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) Friday reached a framework agreement that paves the way for the two companies to continue their joint work to develop Ca Voi Xanh gas field offshore Vietnam, Vietnamese state media reported.

The framework agreement is important for their contractors to complete the preliminary front end engineering design so that they can start commercial gas production from the field in 2023, Vietnam News Agency reported.

In the initial stage, the gas output would be supplied to a gas complex in central Vietnam that would include four gas-to-power plants with combined capacity of about 3,000 megawatts, the report said.

PetroVietnam said last year it started studying a possible site for building a gas-processing plant as part of the complex in Quang Nam province. The complex would also include an 88 kilometer gas pipeline that would annually transport 9 billion to 10 billion cubic meters of gas ashore.

Ca Voi Xanh gas field is 88 kilometers east of Vietnam's central coast. The field's recoverable reserves are estimated at 150 billion cubic meters of gas, making it the largest in Vietnam.

Write to Vu Trong Khanh at trong-khanh.vu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 13, 2017 04:41 ET (09:41 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024 Click Here for more Exxon Mobil Charts.
Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024 Click Here for more Exxon Mobil Charts.