President Nguyen Minh Triet has wished the Viet Nam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) to strongly and sustainably develop to be on a par with other big groups in the world.

Meeting with PetroVietnam staff on February 1 on the occasion of upcoming Lunar New Year (Tet) festival, the President stressed that oil and gas industry is a spearhead and key industry of the country, making great contributions to its GDP growth.

He suggested the group to pay more attention to personnel training, application of scientific and technological advancements, and working out the world’s designing more effective methods of operation in order to contribute more to the country’s development.

PetroVietnam General Director Tran Ngoc Canh reported the group obtained revenue of over 213 trillion VND in 2007, a year-on-year increase of 18.4 percent, or 19 percent of the country’s GDP.

Last year, the group contributed close to 86 trillion VND to the State budget or 30 percent of the State budget revenues.

PetroVietnam intensified exploration for more oil fields both at home and abroad, increasing its total reserves to 40 billion tonnes of equivalent oil, and signed 13 contracts with domestic and foreign partners.

Source: VNA