Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, Oct. 23 (VNA) -- A new oil field has been discovered on Viet Nam's southeastern continental shelf by the Cuu Long Joint Operation Company (JOC).

The oil field, called Golden Lion, is located at lot 15-1 of Cuu Long low sea-bed area offshore Ba Ria-Vung Tau province in southern Viet Nam.

A PetroVietnam (Viet Nam Oil and Gas Corporation) official had disclosed that oil was discovered at a sloping depth of 3,700m.

Golden and Black Lion oil fields are believed to connect with each other and have a combined reserve of about 60-70 million tonnes of oil, half of the reserve of the Bach Ho (White Tiger) oil field, the country's largest oil field.

A joint venture contract on lot 15-1 was signed on Sept. 16, 1998 between PetroVietnam (which holds 50 percent of the contract) and its partners, the United States' Conoco Ltd. (23.25 percent), the Republic of Korea's KNOC (14.25 percent) and SK (9 percent), and France's Goepetrol (3.5 percent).

The JOC and its partners plan to install equipment at the Black and Golden Lion oil fields soon in a bid to pump up the first tonnes of crude oil by late 2003.--VNA