afrol News, 11 December - A Vietnamese national oil and gas Group, PetroVietnam has struck two deals to boost oil and gas cooperation with Sudan and Angola.

Sudanese officials said PetroVietnam signed a cooperation agreement with the Sudan Petroleum Corporation (Sudapet) to explore oil and gas in the country. Both sides agreed to discuss the detail in January 2010.

The agreement, signed during a visit to Sudan by senior executives from PetroVietnam, will also enable both firms to expand their operations in a third country in Africa.

The Group is also expected to sign an agreement with the Angola Petroleum Corporation (Sonnagol) to expand investment in exploring oil and gas. With a reserve of 9 billion barrels of oil and gas and an output of 1.9 million barrels/day, Angola is the third largest oil exporter in Africa, after Nigeria and Libya.

PetroVietnam Deputy Director Nguyen Van Minh said the agreements are part of our plan to expand oil and gas exploration and production to Africa. "We are also focusing on expanding investment in oil and gas projects in other countries, especially in Russia and South America," Mr Minh said.

Although many details of the projects remained unclear, many analysts said it is only a matter of time before Vietnam's oil company tries to become a more important competitor in the global energy markets.

PetroVietnam said it has so far joined more than 20 oil and gas exploration and production projects abroad, including in Algeria, Iraq, Peru, Iran, Myanmar and Venezuela. Many were signed during the past 12 months.

PetroVietnam has signed another gas exploration with Mozambique earlier this month.