Gazprom and Petrovietnam in new play

Russian gas giant Gazprom has signed a deal with Petrovietnam to explore for oil and gas off the Vietnamese coast, as the Kremlin aims to triple annual trade between the two countries to $3 billion.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev presided over the signing of the deal, during the visit to Moscow of his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Minh Triet.

"The negotiations confirmed the framework for strategic partnership between Russia and Vietnam," Medvedev said after the meeting to Reuters.

Russia still enjoys close ties with Vietnam formed during the Soviet era.

Medvedev said talks had focused on increasing annual trade between the two countries first to $3 billion, and subsequently $10 billion, from over $1 billion in 2007.

He said the countries were prepared jointly to conduct "geological exploration in Vietnam, Russia and third countries".

Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom signed a 30-year agreement with Vietnamese state oil monopoly group Petrovietnam to explore four blocks on Vietnam's continental shelf.

Gazprom said in a statement it would finance initial exploration work on blocks 129, 130, 131, 132 of the Vietnam continental shelf.

The companies' existing joint venture, Vietgazprom, will carry out the work.

It is already exploring off Vietnam's coast.

Separately, the two sides created a new joint venture, Gazpromviet, to work in Russia and third countries.

Gazprom subsidiary Gazprom Zarubezhneftegaz will own 51% and Petrovietnam 49% of the joint venture, which will work at the Nagumanosvkoye deposit in Russia's Orenburg region.

The blueprint for Russian-Vietnamese partnership in energy is Vietsovpetro, a joint venture between Petrovietnam and state-owned Zarubezhneft from the 1980s, which produces over 150,000 barrels of oil a day on average from the Bach Ho field.