Hanoi (VNA) - At a recent symposium on measures to boostthe development of Vietnam’s mechanic sectors, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucstressed that the Government will establish a market for mechanic firms todevelop, including facilitating the sector to seek for domestic and overseasmarkets for the country’s oil and gas engineering sector’s products.

By now, the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) has built a modern oil andgas manufacturing industry able to effectively meet the needs for explorationand exploitation in replacement of the products it previously had to import.

More than 30 years ago, the Vietnam – Russia joint venture Vietsovpetrohad to bring its rig platform from Baku (Azerbaijan) to the offshore of Ba Ria– Vung Tau province for assembly in service of oil and gas exploration andexploitation in Bach Ho oilfield. But now the oil and gas sector has becomeable to manufacture, install and operate rigs for oil and gas exploration andexploitation on Vietnam’s continental shelf. Besides, many products of the oiland gas mechanic sector have been exported to the world, helping bring foreignhard currencies to the country.

After a process of forming and development, the manufacturing sector ofthe PetroVietnam has gradually mastered the technology to make the great development.

A marker of the development is the successful manufacturing ofself-elevating rigs Tam Dao 03 and Tam Dao 05 at a depth of over 90 metres.Since their commissioning, those rigs have been operating stably and safely.The manufacturing has brought Vietnam into the list of the very few countriesthat successfully produce modern rigs of international standards and, at thesame time, affirmed the trademark of the engineering services by the oil andgas sector in replacement of the import of deep-water rigs. This is anengineering product with the application of high technology for the first timein Vietnam, with a localisation rate of 35 percent.

Besides, the oil and gas engineering sector has grown into being ableto meet the requirement for manufacturing and assembly of rigs for foreign oiland gas companies.

In 2014, the upper part of the rig of the HRD technology with a totalweight of nearly 11,000 tons meeting international standards on technology wassuccessfully produced by the PTSC M&C in 17 months, ahead of the schedule,with absolute safety, and won high recognition by the Indian investor ONGC,partners and supervisors for its quality. The project is the biggestimplemented by a Vietnamese firm for foreign customers after its winning of aninternational bidding against many competitors from India and the Middle East.

With the above-said achievements, the oil and gas engineering sectorhas been, according to PetroVietnam, approaching, applying and mastering thetechnology on manufacturing and assembling oil and gas projects which requirehigh precision and skills, as well as strict standards on quality and safety.

With the success of the Bien Dong 01 project, the miracle recorded byVietnam’s oil and gas sector stands as clear evidence of the inner strength ofthe sector in general and of the oil and gas engineering industry inparticular.

A PetroVietnam representative said the Bien Dong 01 project is considered themost complex of the oil and gas sector in every aspect. All of its detaildesigns, purchases and manufacturing on the shore were implemented in 30months, a record not so many contractors in the world can reach. The successfulmanufacturing and installation of the 133m-underwater oil and gas rig for theBien Dong 01 project ahead of the schedule has affirmed the stuff and wisdom ofexperts, engineers and technicians of Vietnam’s oil and gas manufacturingindustry, making important contributions to the oil and gas exploiting andprocessing industry and, at the same time, affirming and safeguarding theMotherland’s sacred sovereignty.

The PetroVietnam representative also revealed that in the time to come, oil andgas services in general and engineering in particular will continue to facewith objective difficulties, challenges and impact, yet it will continue toreap new successes, thus affirming the stuff and aspiration of the Vietnamesepeople in the integration period./.