Will Blue Whale become the biggest hit of Vietnam's oil and gas industry in the next decade, or is the market expecting too much too soon for a project that has repeatedly fallen behind schedule?
After many years of almost stagnation, the Blue Whale gas project is showing positive signs when Petrovietnam said it has basically identified a new investor with financial capacity and long-term cooperation orientation. This is considered an important step to bring one of Vietnam's largest energy projects back to implementation.
According to the current plan, the project aims to restart in the fourth quarter of 2026. If progress is kept on track, the Final Investment Decision FID may be approved in the second half of 2027 or the first half of 2028. This will help shorten the time to exploit the first gas stream to 2032 instead of 2033 as previously forecast.
Blue Whale's scale is among the largest in the region with a total investment of about 5 billion USD. The project is located offshore in the T regionvibration, about 100 km from shore. The current investment structure includes ExxonMobil holding 64 percent of participating interests and Petrovietnam owning 36 percent.
Main information board of the project
Category Scale
Total investment capital: About 5 billion USD
Distance from shore About 100 km
Recoverable gas reserves are about 248 billion m³ of raw gas
Hydrocarbon gas About 150 billion m³
Gas pipeline Approximately 88 km
The mining cluster consists of 2 clusters with 8 wells
The first gas flow is expected in 2032
Electricity capacity using gas is about 3,750 MW
The most notable point of Blue Whale lies in the scale of its resources. With about 248 billion m³ of recoverable raw gas, equivalent to about 150 billion m³ of hydrocarbon gas, the project is estimated to be about 1.5 times larger than the Block B O Mon project. This gas source is capable of providing fuel for 5 gas power plants in the Central region with a total capacity of about 3,750 MW, contributing to enhancing national energy security for many years.
Comparison between two large gas projects
Blue Whale Block B O Mon criteria
Size of reserves Larger is about 1.5 times Smaller
Gas supply target for Central region gas power center O Mon gas power center
Investment scale: About 5 billion USD. Lower scale
Not only does it mean energy supply, Blue Whale also opens the cycleNew growth for many listed oil and gas enterprises.
PVS is considered an early beneficiary thanks to its ability to undertake EPCI bidding packages for offshore exploitation rigs immediately after the FID is approved. PVD has the opportunity to increase revenue from drilling services when exploitation wells are deployed. Meanwhile, PV GAS will benefit from gas collection, transportation and distribution activities when the entire value chain comes into operation.
Business panels can benefit
Business Opportunity
PVS Construction of EPCI offshore exploitation platform
PVD Increase drilling and exploitation services
PV GAS Collects, transports and distributes gas
Petrovietnam Expanding the oil, gas and electricity value chain
From a macro perspective, the project also receives support from the Vietnamese Government. During working meetings with ExxonMobil, the Vietnamese side asked the group to continue implementing the project according to signed commitments. ExxonMobil also affirmed that it still considers Vietnam a strategic market in Southeast Asia and continues to appreciate its long-term growth potential.
If all progress milestones are guaranteed, Blue Whale will not only add large-scale gas sources to the national power system but also create a new wave of investment for the entire oil and gas industry, from offshore exploitation toOh, drilling, rig manufacturing, gas transportation to power generation. This could become one of the landmark projects for Vietnam's energy industry in the period 2030 onwards.
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