The Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and Russia’s OAO Zarubezhneft Company on Aug. 28 signed a number of cooperation agreements.

The deals include a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to consider Zarubezhneft’s participation in developing some lots on the continental shelf offshore Vietnam.

Zarubezhneft also signed with PetroVietnam’s subsidiary, PetroVietnam Exploration and Production Corporation (PVEP), an MoU to ask permission for oil and gas exploration and exploitation in a contracted deep-water area off the shore of Cuba.

The Rusvietpetro joint venture company and the PetroVietnam Insurance Joint Stock Company (PVI) signed an insurance contract for an oil drilling project in Russia ’s Nenevski Municipality, a multi-billion USD project with the participation of large oil and gas groups from Russia and other countries.

With the contract, PVI becomes the first Vietnamese non-life insurance company to join an overseas project.

Addressing the signing ceremony, PetroVietnam General Director Phung Dinh Thuc said Zarubezhneft is a long-term partner which has made important contributions to Vietnam ’s economic development.

He said the two sides have cooperated since 1991 and exploited 180 million tonnes of crude oil from Bach Ho (White Tiger) and Rong (Dragon) fields.

With the newly-signed deals, PetroVietnam and Zarubezhneft would continue cooperation in investment in Vietnam, Russia and third countries, Thuc said.

Zarubezhneft General Director Nikolai Brunich also expressed his hope that the two sides would continue their effective cooperation in a third country, particularly in Cuba, in the coming time.