A company official said subsea and surface production facilities are being examined.

“Planning continues but there is no specific solution as yet,” Roald Lokken, Exxon­Mobil’s chief offshore engineer, told delegates at the Petro­Vietnam Conference & Exhibition.

Lokken suggested the water depth of about 300 metres and the reservoir were “not especially challenging”.

Vietnam sources have indicated previously that the basecase development concept for the project in Block 118 in the Phu Khanh basin comprises a large central processing platform, satellite platforms, a subsea gas export line of about 100 kilometres in length, and an onshore gas processing facility.

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