State oil monopoly Petrovietnam forecast its crude oil production this year at 16 million tonnes, or 320,000 barrels per day, almost unchanged from 2007, state media reported.

Crude oil output last year totalled 15.9 million tonnes and export revenues reached a record $8.8 billion thanks to high world oil prices, the Vietnam News daily quoted Petrovietnam Deputy General Director Le Minh Hong as saying.
Petrovietnam Chief Executive Tran Ngoc Canh said the group had applied to buy an oilfield in Azerbaijan and was negotiating to purchase another in Kazakhstan this year to offset declining output at home.
Petrovietnam officials have said production at the country’s biggest oilfield, Bach Ho, would decline by about 20,000-25,000 bpd each year between now and 2014.
Last year Bach Ho’s output was at 173,000 bpd, accounting for nearly 55 per cent of the country’s total crude output.
But commercial production at several new oil fields would make up for the loss.