| Written by Mark Buzinkay
Table of contents:
- Mapping the Seascape - Vietnam's Offshore Energy
- From Soviet-Era Discoveries to Modern Diversification: The Evolution of Vietnam's Oil & Gas Sector
- The Next Frontier: Vietnam's Offshore Energy Between Decline and Diversification
- FAQ
- Takeaway
- Glossary
Mapping the Seascape - Vietnam's Offshore Energy
Stretching more than 3,200 kilometres along the South China Sea—locally the East Sea—Vietnam's continental shelf hosts a necklace of Cenozoic rift basins that anchor the country's offshore hydrocarbons. From north to south, the key petroleum provinces are the Song Hong Basin off the Red River Delta, the Phu Khanh margin off the south-central coast, the prolific Cuu Long Basin east of Vũng Tàu, the Nam Con Son Basin farther southeast toward the deepwater frontier, and the Malay–Tho Chu Basin tucked into the Gulf of Thailand in the southwest. Each basin has distinct structural styles and source kitchens, but together they form the geographic backbone of "Vietnam oil & gas." (1)
The Cuu Long Basin is the historic heartland. Here, granitic "buried hill" highs fracture to create unusual basement reservoirs—most famously at Bạch Hổ (White Tiger). This field proved Vietnam could produce oil at scale from crystalline rock beneath Tertiary cover. Surrounding Cuu Long structures also host fields such as Rồng and Rạn Đông, arrayed relatively close to shore and to the service hub of Vũng Tàu. This nearshore geography shortens steaming time for jack-ups and liftboats and helps explain why Cuu Long underwrote early production growth. (2)
To the southeast, the Nam Con Son Basin is Vietnam's principal gas province and the anchor for a long trunkline system feeding power and industry around Ho Chi Minh City and beyond. The Lan Tây and Lan Đỏ gas-condensate fields in Block 06-1 sit roughly 300–400 kilometres offshore; their layout dictated the original Nam Con Son Pipeline alignment and subsequent expansions. Geographically, Nam Con Son transitions from shelf to deeper water, making it both the workhorse of today's gas supply and the launchpad for future high-spec exploration. (3)
Further north of Quảng Nam–Quảng Ngãi, Block 118 hosts the Ca Voi Xanh (Blue Whale) gas accumulation, positioned roughly 100 kilometres offshore. Its location—close enough to tie into coastal power hubs, yet in waters that test Vietnam's deeper-water execution—illustrates the country's shift from mature shelf plays to larger, gas-weighted projects along the central margin. The field's offshore platform and planned pipeline corridors sketch a new geographic axis for "Vietnam oil & gas," extending the producing map beyond the southern basins. (4)
In the southwest, the Malay–Tho Chu Basin straddles the maritime borderlands of the Gulf of Thailand. Blocks B, 48/95 and 52/97—collectively known as Block B—lie off Cà Mau and Kiên Giang and are designed to feed gas ashore via the Block B–Ô Môn pipeline toward power and industrial demand centres in the Mekong Delta. The geography here favours shallow-water development and shorter tiebacks, but the logistics pivot westward, away from Vũng Tàu, creating a twin-hub offshore map for Vietnam. (5)
Overlaying this hydrocarbon seascape is an emerging band of offshore wind resources. The south-central coast—Ninh Thuận and Bình Thuận down toward Cà Mau—exhibits some of Asia's strongest nearshore winds, with technical potential mapped for both fixed-bottom and floating installations within 200 kilometres of shore. In simple geographic terms, tomorrow's turbines will rise in many of the same service corridors as today's platforms, tightening the spatial link between fossil and renewable energy along Vietnam's coast. (6)
From Soviet-Era Discoveries to Modern Diversification: The Evolution of Vietnam's Oil & Gas Sector
The story of Vietnam's oil & gas is inseparable from the nation's economic transformation. Emerging from decades of war and reconstruction, Vietnam's offshore energy journey began in earnest in the late 1970s, when the newly established state enterprise Petrovietnam sought to unlock the country's continental shelf potential. The first phase of exploration was dominated by Soviet collaboration—most notably through Vietsovpetro, a joint venture between Petrovietnam and Russia's Zarubezhneft. This partnership discovered and developed the iconic Bạch Hổ (White Tiger) field in the Cuu Long Basin in 1986, proving commercial oil production from fractured basement rock—a geological anomaly that redefined exploration in Southeast Asia.
The early decades of production marked a period of state-led growth and geopolitical pragmatism. Vietnam's energy diplomacy, initially focused on Russia and the Eastern Bloc, gradually expanded to include Western and Asian majors after the Đổi Mới economic reforms of 1986. By the mid-1990s, international players such as BP, ConocoPhillips, and Total entered the market, bringing technology and capital that helped accelerate offshore development. Gas discoveries in the Nam Con Son and Malay–Tho Chu basins diversified the country's hydrocarbon base, shifting Vietnam from a primarily oil-exporting economy toward a more balanced oil-and-gas portfolio.
At its peak in the early 2000s, Vietnam produced nearly 400,000 barrels of oil per day, positioning it as one of Southeast Asia's key exporters. Revenues from Vietnam oil & gas contributed significantly to GDP and fiscal stability, financing infrastructure and social programs. The downstream sector also evolved: refineries in Dung Quất and Nghi Sơn reduced dependence on imported refined products and helped build a domestic petrochemical foundation. Gas infrastructure—particularly the Nam Con Son Pipeline and the PM3–Cà Mau pipeline system—underpinned an expanding network of gas-fired power plants, anchoring industrial growth in southern Vietnam.
However, the sector's trajectory over the past decade has mirrored global challenges. Maturing fields, declining production, and complex geopolitics in the South China Sea have slowed momentum. Exploration activities have become riskier, not only due to geological uncertainty but also because of maritime disputes and shifting global capital toward low-carbon energy. Production has fallen to around half of its 2004 levels, and maintaining output now demands deeper-water and more technically demanding projects.
Despite this, Vietnam oil & gas remains a pillar of national energy security and fiscal resilience. Petrovietnam continues to dominate the sector, but the partnership model has diversified to include Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Indian, and Russian firms. The government's long-term energy strategy—outlined in Power Development Plan VIII—envisions gas as a transitional fuel, both domestically produced and imported in the form of LNG, as the country advances toward its 2050 net-zero goal.
Today, Vietnam stands at a crossroads between its hydrocarbon heritage and an energy transition that is gathering pace worldwide. The offshore infrastructure, human capital, and regulatory experience built over four decades provide a strong foundation for this shift. While legacy oil and gas fields face natural decline, their platforms, supply chains, and coastal industrial bases could be repurposed to support offshore wind development and carbon storage. The next chapter of Vietnam oil & gas may therefore be written not just in barrels and cubic meters, but in megawatts—bridging the fossil and renewable eras across the same maritime frontier.
The Next Frontier: Vietnam's Offshore Energy Between Decline and Diversification
The present landscape of Vietnam oil & gas reveals a sector in transition—still central to national energy security, yet increasingly aware of the limits of its traditional reserves and the opportunities of a greener offshore future. Decades of production have established a robust network of platforms, pipelines, and service hubs stretching from the Gulf of Thailand to the East Sea. Yet most of Vietnam's active oil fields, including Bạch Hổ, Rồng, and Rạng Đông in the Cuu Long Basin, are now in mature stages, producing at a fraction of their peak capacity. Maintaining output has become a technical challenge, requiring enhanced oil recovery (EOR), infill drilling, and advanced reservoir management.
The gas sector offers a more promising horizon. The Nam Con Son and Malay–Tho Chu basins remain the mainstays of domestic gas supply, feeding the country's expanding network of power plants. Upcoming developments such as Block B–Ô Môn in the southwest and the massive Ca Voi Xanh (Blue Whale) project off the central coast are expected to underpin Vietnam's gas-based power generation for decades. Together, they could supply more than 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year once fully online—crucial for offsetting declining oil revenues and stabilising the country's energy transition. However, both projects have faced delays due to pricing negotiations, regulatory hurdles, and capital constraints, reflecting the broader uncertainty facing Vietnam oil & gas investors in a tightening global market.
The corporate landscape mirrors this complexity. Petrovietnam, through subsidiaries such as PVEP (Petrovietnam Exploration Production Corporation) and PV Gas, remains the anchor of the industry. The legacy joint venture Vietsovpetro continues to operate the ageing Cuu Long assets, while international partners bring critical technical and financial muscle. Russia's Zarubezhneft, Japan's Idemitsu, Malaysia's Petronas, and South Korea's SK Innovation all maintain stakes in offshore blocks, with participation from India's ONGC Videsh in exploration projects that also serve geopolitical interests. Western majors, including ExxonMobil and Shell, have recalibrated their exposure, with some shifting focus toward LNG imports and renewable energy.
Financially, the offshore sector remains a substantial contributor to the national economy. In 2023, Petrovietnam reported revenues exceeding US$30 billion, with offshore production accounting for the majority of upstream earnings. Yet the longer-term outlook depends not only on new discoveries but on adapting offshore infrastructure for new uses. Decommissioning old platforms will be costly, but many could find second lives as hubs for offshore wind operations or carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities—a strategic bridge between the hydrocarbon and renewable eras.
Vietnam's coastline, blessed with steady monsoon winds and relatively shallow waters, is emerging as a prime candidate for offshore wind development. Projects off Bình Thuận, Ninh Thuận, and Cà Mau provinces have been mapped with a combined technical potential exceeding 600 GW. Global developers from Denmark, Norway, and the UK are studying how the existing Vietnam oil & gas supply chain—fabrication yards, ports, and marine engineering expertise—can pivot to support wind installation and maintenance. The overlap of geography and skill sets offers a unique path for Vietnam to leverage its offshore legacy toward sustainable growth.
In the coming decades, the success of Vietnam oil & gas will depend on balancing extraction with innovation. Continued investment in deepwater exploration and gas infrastructure must align with policy reforms that invite private and international capital. At the same time, offshore wind and CCS can anchor Vietnam's low-carbon future without abandoning its maritime industrial base. The oil platforms that once symbolised Vietnam's economic ascent may soon share the horizon with wind turbines—a visual and economic testament to a nation reshaping its offshore destiny.
FAQ: Vietnam's Offshore Oil & Gas Industry
What are the main offshore oil and gas basins in Vietnam?
Vietnam's offshore resources are concentrated in several key basins: the Cuu Long Basin near Vũng Tàu, the Nam Con Son Basin to the southeast, the Song Hong and Phu Khanh basins in the north and central regions, and the Malay–Tho Chu Basin in the southwest. Together, these areas form the geological foundation of Vietnam's oil & gas production and exploration.
How significant is the oil and gas sector to Vietnam's economy?
The Vietnam oil & gas industry contributes billions of dollars annually to the national budget and underpins domestic energy supply. Petrovietnam, the state oil company, and its international partners operate offshore fields that support industrial growth, energy security, and employment. Gas from offshore projects also fuels much of Vietnam's power generation infrastructure.
What are the main challenges facing Vietnam's offshore platforms?
Mature fields, high development costs, and rising security concerns are key challenges. Many platforms operate in contested maritime zones, increasing the need for enhanced rig security and surveillance. Additionally, as digital systems integrate with offshore operations, protecting assets against cyberattacks has become as vital as defending against physical threats. These issues shape the next phase of Vietnam oil & gas strategy.
Takeaway
Vietnam's offshore energy sector stands at a pivotal crossroads between legacy hydrocarbons and renewable transformation. While oil and gas will remain central to the economy for years, future growth depends on technological modernisation and robust safety governance. As offshore operations extend into deeper, more contested waters, oil rig security—both physical and cyber—becomes critical. Strengthening surveillance systems, crew safety protocols (see also: Crew attendance solutions), and digital resilience will ensure that Vietnam oil & gas continues to operate safely and sustainably in an increasingly complex maritime environment.
Delve deeper into one of our core topics: Personnel on board
Glossary
Diversification spreads investments across assets, sectors, geographies, or technologies to reduce reliance on any single risk. Because returns are imperfectly correlated, losses in one holding can be offset by gains elsewhere, lowering volatility without necessarily reducing expected return. In corporate strategy, it also means entering new products or markets to stabilise cash flows and build resilience. (7)
References:
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%E1%BA%A1ch_H%E1%BB%95_oil_field
(3) https://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/lan-do-gas-vietnam/
(4) https://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/ca-voi-xanh-field/
(5) https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/projects/block-b-o-mon-project-vietnam/
(7) Markowitz, H. (1952). “Portfolio Selection.” The Journal of Finance, 7(1), 77–91.
Note: This article was partly created with the assistance of artificial intelligence to support drafting. The head image was created by AI.
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