Vietnam-Russia joint venture achieves first oil from new offshore platform
en.Wedoany.com Reported - At 11:11 on September 11, the RC12 wellhead platform of the Vietnam-Russia joint venture Vietsovpetro, located in the Rong field in Block 09-1 of the Cuu Long Basin in Vietnam, officially achieved first oil. Once the new platform is put into production, it will supplement incremental output for this mature field and support Vietsovpetro in fulfilling its oil and gas production plans for 2026 and subsequent years.
RC12 adopts a four-legged fixed wellhead platform design, with a total of 9 well slots, a designed crude oil production capacity of 1,500 cubic meters per day, equivalent to approximately 9,400 barrels per day; a natural gas processing capacity of 300,000 cubic meters per day, while also providing 250,000 cubic meters per day of gas lift gas processing capacity. The platform mainly handles functions such as new well tie-ins, oil and gas gathering and transportation, and gas lift production, and is an important new offshore facility for maintaining subsequent production from the Rong field.
The RC12 project was built on the success of three exploration and appraisal wells, R-79, R-81, and R-82. After completing oil and gas discovery and reserve evaluation, Vietsovpetro advanced project approval, procurement of materials and equipment, platform construction, offshore installation, and system commissioning, and ultimately completed the first oil milestone on September 11. The project is a rolling development engineering effort aimed at continuously developing new reserves on the periphery of a mature field and slowing the overall production decline.
Block 09-1, where the Rong field is located, is one of Vietsovpetro's core long-term offshore assets and, together with fields such as Bach Ho, forms the main production base on the southern continental shelf of Vietnam. As of June 2026, Vietsovpetro's cumulative crude oil production in Block 09-1 had reached 255 million tons, while new wellhead platforms such as RC12 undertake the tasks of subsequent stable production in mature blocks and conversion of new reserves.
Vietsovpetro is jointly operated by Vietnam's national industrial and energy group Petrovietnam and Russia's Zarubezhneft. After RC12 is put into production, the project's subsequent focus will shift to new production well tie-ins, production ramp-up, and coordinated operation with the existing offshore oil and gas gathering and transportation system, further leveraging the existing platforms, pipelines, and processing facilities of the Rong field to extend the block's economic production life.
