Aramco considers investment in Vietnam’s oil industry

Saudi Aramco

• Cooperation agreement signed
• Free trade deal proposed
• Cepa agreed with UAE

Saudi Aramco has expressed interest in investing in Vietnam’s oil refinery sector and petroleum distribution, the south-east Asian country’s government says. 

Vietnam’s prime minister, Pham Minh Chinh, met Aramco president and CEO Amin Nasser during the Future Investment Initiative summit in the Saudi capital. 

“Vietnam has great potential in the region, therefore, Aramco wishes to invest in oil refinery and petrol distribution in the country,” the Vietnamese government said in a statement to the news agency Reuters. 

Pham pledged “to create favourable ways for foreign investors, including Aramco and other Saudi Arabian enterprises, to invest and do business efficiently and sustainably,” the Vietnam government website reported. 

No details were given on the size of the investment. 

• UAE and Vietnam pact aims for $20bn in bilateral trade

• UAE and Malaysia sign Cepa to increase bilateral trade

• UAE-Jordan trade deal targets non-oil growth

On Tuesday, Aramco announced that it had signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of oil and gas trade with Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, which trades as Petrovietnam. 

The agreement “paves the way for potential cooperation spanning the storage, supply and trading of energy and petrochemical products,” Aramco said. 

Mohammed Al Qahtani, Aramco’s downstream president said the agreement “lays the foundation for potential collaboration across the hydrocarbon value chain.”

“We look forward to exploring multiple opportunities with Petrovietnam that complement Aramco’s global downstream ambitions, contribute to Petrovietnam’s own strategy, and reinforce Asia’s importance in global energy and petrochemicals markets,” Al Qahtani said.

Le Ngoc Son, Petrovietnam’s CEO, said the agreement was “a strategic step, which is evidence of the strong cooperative relationship between Petrovietnam and Aramco.”

Free trade deal 

Pham also met Bandar Al Khorayef, Saudi Arabia’s minister of industry and mineral resources. 

The Vietnamese PM proposed the negotiation of a free trade agreement between the two countries. 

Saudi Arabia is Vietnam’s leading trading partner in the Middle East. Bilateral trade between the nations reached $2.7 billion in 2023, of which Vietnam exported about $1.1 billion, an increase of 60 percent. 

Pham said the two countries should negotiate investment protection agreements and labour agreements to send Vietnamese workers to Saudi Arabia. He suggested that two-way trade could reach between $5 billion and $10 billion. 

On Tuesday, the UAE and Vietnam signed a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (Cepa), paving the way for $20 billion in bilateral trade.

It was Vietnam’s first Cepa with a Middle Eastern country. The agreement seeks to enhance cooperation across sectors including foreign affairs, defence, security, law, trade, investment and agriculture.