"Contract negotiations continued for the floating production, storage and offloading vessel and the tension leg wellhead platform facilities," said Pan Pacific.

Negotiations for a long-term gas sales agreement with PetroVietnam are also in full swing, added the Australian company.

Three companies are understood to be competing for the FPSO - Yinson Holdings, Petrofac and Bumi Armada.

The leased FPSO will have processing capacity of between 25,000 barrels per day of oil and 30,000 bpd plus 60 million cubic feet per day of gas.

The