On November 14, 2022, the 15th National Assembly voted to pass a new petroleum law. The law will be officially implemented from July 1, 2023. This is the first time that our country’s petroleum law has undergone a major overhaul since it was first promulgated in 1993.

The draft decree detailing a number of articles of the Oil and Gas Act 2022 is also being widely consulted by companies and associations… The wording of the decree detailing a number of articles of the Petroleum Act is subject to change. 2015/ND-CP of October 16, 2015, which directs the implementation of the Petroleum Law and Decree 33/2013/ND-CP of April 22, 2013 promulgating the Production Sharing Contract.

REGULATIONS MUST BE CLEAR, SHORT ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES

However, at the seminar on the introduction of the Oil and Gas Law in 2022, recently organized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam), many opinions indicated that the detailed content of the provisions of the Decree and Decree No The list must be reviewed and audited in accordance with the provisions of the Petroleum Act to ensure its consistency, practicability and suitability for the current situation of oil and gas activities.

In particular, provisions on approval of oil and gas contracts, preferential policies, contract renewal, procedures for selecting oil and gas contractors, fundamental investigations, approval of field development plans, use of collection, exploitation, financial regulations, mine clearance…

Mr. Vu Minh Duc, deputy general manager of PetroVietnam Exploration and Production Corporation (PVEP), said the development of guidelines for the implementation of the law should be clear and simple and shorten the steps for submission to the relevant authorities.

For example, the regulation for selecting oil and gas suppliers currently has 3 steps that must be submitted to the Prime Minister for approval, this can take 3 years or more. Therefore, it is necessary to consider shortening and combining to 1-2 steps.

At the same time, establishing specific timeframes to obtain a new oil and gas contract as quickly as possible, encouraging field investment and development, and removing existing barriers to project commissioning to achieve the best efficiency and economic benefits.

dr Nguyen Quoc Thap, chairman of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Association, said the instrument to bring the law to life is the decree. Therefore, the decree must be more specific and detailed in order to put into practice the provisions of the law.

The two contractors Perenco and SK Innovation are interested in the legal value of the old oil and gas contract versus the new oil and gas contract. They believe that there is a need to simplify a number of permitting processes and procedures in the oil and gas contract in order to get concrete agreements soon to accelerate the progress of the project after the signing of the new oil and gas contract.

In addition, the order and procedures for approving the coordination of the parties in conducting the principle determination, a number of regulations on the financial mechanism, the method of calculating fees and the certification of the financial authorities in the file to the authority …

SUCCESSFUL INSTALLATION FOR SMALL ADMINISTRATION WORK

Commenting on the draft decree, which lists a number of articles of the Petroleum Law, Vietnam Trade and Industry Confederation (VCCI) said that the draft, which is currently being drafted, still contains many administrative procedures with two steps: the valuation and assessment step, Duplication of work between the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group and the Ministry of Industry and Trade is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

In particular, the procedure for accepting and approving the results of the basic oil and gas exploration project (in Article 8) of the draft is currently divided into base-level acceptance tests conducted by the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group and ministerial-level acceptance tests conducted by the Ministry of industry and trade. Meanwhile, the Petroleum Act regulates only the acceptance of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (Article 10.4.c of the Petroleum Act).

Procedure for extending oil and gas prospecting, oil and gas contract in special cases under Article 31.4 of the Petroleum Law in Article 27 of the draft: the contractor sends the dossier to the oil and gas group for consideration and evaluation; The Oil and Gas Group sends the dossier to the Department of Industry and Trade for evaluation; The Ministry of Industry and Trade submits it to the Prime Minister for approval. The Mineral Oil Act, on the other hand, only provides for assessment by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (Article 31.4).

In addition, Article 28.4 of the draft specifies the procedure for maintaining the gas-reported area: the contractor requests the group to examine and assess this; The group reports to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for consideration; The Ministry of Industry and Trade submits it to the Prime Minister for approval.

In addition, the procedure for expanding the oil and gas contract area, merging and discovery of oil and gas, oil and gas fields in Article 32 of the draft: the contractor asks the group to examine and evaluate them; The group reports to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for consideration; The Ministry of Industry and Trade submits it to the Prime Minister for approval.

Or the procedure for transferring rights and obligations in oil and gas contracts and issuing investment registration certificates will be adjusted in Article 33 of the draft.

Therefore, VCCI proposes to revise these regulations in such a way that only one procedure is required, the remaining agencies or units are consulted during the assessment or evaluation process.

In addition, according to the VCCI, when selecting the organization to lead the implementation of the oil and gas baseline survey project, the regulations on the form of the selection are not clear. “If there are many eligible organizations proposing the same or overlapping projects, it is not clear how the Oil and Gas Group will conduct the selection,” VCCI asked.

The absence of this provision can lead to arbitrary implementation and even lead to disputes and conflicts between the parties involved. Therefore, the draft needs to add rules on the selection procedure when the proposed projects have duplicate or overlapping content.