US energy giant to prospect Vietnam's largest gas field The Vietnamese government has just allowed US energy giant ExxonMobil to join in with the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) in Ca Voi Xanh, the largest gas field found so far in the East Sea. According to the Government Office, Deputy PM Trinh Dinh Dung on Thursday had a meeting with ExxonMobil's vice president, Paul Greenwood, in which Dung urged the Ministry of Industry and Trade to work with Petrovietnam and ExxonMobil on the project.   Deputy PM Trinh Dinh Dung (right) met with ExxonMobil's vice president, Paul Greenwood in Hanoi on December 1 to talk about the Ca Voi Xanh project Dung stressed the importance of the project in meeting the rising demand for gas in generating electricity. Paul Greenwood said that they were in the final process of discussions with the Vietnamese parties and would soon start the project once completed. The Ca Voi Xanh gas field is located about 100km off the coast of the central Quang Nam Province. ExxonMobil found hydrocarbons while drilling in the field in 2011. It is estimated that Ca Voi Xanh holds reserves of 150 billion cubic metres of natural gas, which is three times bigger than the combined reserves of the country’s two most productive gas fields, Lan Tay and Lan Do, in the southern Nam Con Son Basin. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc recently approved construction of four gas-fired power plants with total capacity of 3,000 MW which will use gas from Ca Voi Xanh. According to their plan, PVN and ExxonMobil will produce the first gas from Ca Voi Xanh by 2021. It is hoped the field will produce about 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year. dtinews.vn