Ngo Thuong San – “Journey to find and keep the fire” Oil and Gas (Part 3)

As one of the historical witnesses, as well as the person who contributed his efforts and intelligence to the glorious history of the Vietnam Oil and Gas industry, Mr. Ngo Thuong San's entire life is a series of continuous contributions on the journey of "finding the fire and keeping the fire" for the development of the industry and the cause of building and developing the country.

All for the development of the Oil and Gas industry, for the national interest

Mr. Ngo Thuong San affirmed that, besides the determination and efforts of generations of “fire seekers”, the success of the Oil and Gas industry is always associated with the correct and wise leadership of the Party and Government. All for the goal of putting national interests first.

Mr. Ngo Thuong San

In 1988, after 8 years of establishing the Vietsovpetro Joint Venture, it was also the time of generational transfer, transferring the leadership work, which was mainly held by Russians in the positions of department heads, with the Vietnamese side as deputy, setting a requirement that by 1990, the Soviet Union would hand over the leadership work to the Vietnamese side. First, they tested the position of Vietnamese rig manager. At that time, many brothers were also worried, telling Mr. San, "If you decide like that, if there is an incident at sea in the future, you will have to take responsibility." But with strong belief and realizing that the brothers had enough knowledge, capacity, and responsibility; believing that in the near future, Vietnamese personnel could completely replace foreign experts in managing and operating activities, he did not hesitate to support the decision to assign some important responsibilities. After that, he continued to transfer leadership to Vietnamese people in some units in the joint venture. In 1990, the position of General Director of Vietsovpetro was transferred to a Vietnamese person and Mr. Ngo Thuong San was also the first Vietnamese person to take this position. Since then, the General Director of the Joint Venture has been assumed by a Vietnamese person and has maintained the stable, effective and strong development of the Joint Venture until today. In 1993, Mr. San was assigned the additional task of Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation, now the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam). In 1996, he was transferred to Hanoi to be the General Director of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation until his retirement in 2001. In any position, he always worked with the spirit of dedication, daring to think, daring to do with a pure heart for the country. In particular, important investment decisions that later created a source of sustainable and long-term development for the Oil and Gas industry, as well as contributed to the formation of industries and economic zones of the country.

Phu My Fertilizer Plant has been operating effectively and making important contributions to the country over the past 20 years.

Mr. San recalled that when investing in the construction of the Phu My Fertilizer Plant, Petrovietnam initially only participated in 5% of the joint venture and was the unit that ensured the supply of raw gas for the plant. However, the project could not be implemented because no agreement was reached between the investors participating in the project. In particular, the dominant investors made unreasonable demands, demanding privileges and benefits with the requirement that the associated gas from Bach Ho field be considered as Petrovietnam's contribution to the joint venture, meaning that the gas purchase price would not be calculated and when selling fertilizer products, all that raw gas would not be included in the cost price. After much discussion, the joint venture agreed that Petrovietnam would sell gas to the plant at 11 cents/1 million Btu, while the price of Bach Ho gas sold to electricity at that time was 23 cents/1 million Btu, which is less than half. Not only that, later if selling fertilizer was not profitable, Petrovietnam would have to continue to lower the gas price to compensate for the joint venture's losses. Frustrated with the unreasonable demands and conditions from the investors, while Petrovietnam only contributed 5% of the capital, so its participation in management and decision-making would also be limited; on the occasion of meeting and reporting to former General Secretary Do Muoi, who was then an advisor to the Party Central Committee, Mr. San presented the bottlenecks and unreasonable requirements of the joint venture investing in the Phu My Fertilizer Plant project and affirmed that Petrovietnam could invest in this project. At the same time, he also expressed his concern that if the project continued to be stuck, agriculture would not be "industrialized" and would not escape poverty, would not be able to shorten the gap between urban and rural areas according to the Party's policy and especially would have to burn off excess gas when the Bach Ho mine reached peak production. Hearing that it was true and being a strong supporter of promoting internal resources, Mr. Do Muoi thought and said, "Then why not let the Oil and Gas Group invest in purchasing the design, hire foreigners to manage it, and invest ourselves?" Mr. Do Muoi then asked Mr. San, "Do you dare to do it?". Mr. San replied, "It's very difficult for me to say whether I dare or not, but because of the common responsibility, I will do it, I will try my best with the help of the Government." Mr. Do Muoi then called former Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet (Government advisor) who was working in Ca Mau and said, "Mr. San presented it like that..., please consider it for him." Mr. San remembered that it was Saturday, when he returned, he informed Mr. Nguyen Xuan Nham, then Deputy General Director of Petrovietnam, and asked Mr. Nham to prepare the FDP documents of the Phu My Fertilizer Plant project, and at the same time have a short summary report on the current status of the plant's implementation to report to former Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet the next day. At around 7:00 a.m. on Monday of the following week, the phone from the Government's hotline with Petrovietnam rang, on the other end of the line, former Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet called and asked him to report on the project's problems. Upon arrival, he presented the Phu My Fertilizer Plant FDP file and Petrovietnam's summary report; after reading it, Mr. Vo Van Kiet asked again, "Now how do you present your wishes?". Mr. San reported, "The project is stuck like that, if it continues to drag on, there will never be any fertilizer and we will have to burn excess gas onshore. If we let the Corporation invest by itself now, the project will move forward and if there is any risk in price, we recommend that the State compensate for losses and support the first phase"... After listening to Mr. San's presentation, former Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet agreed to support Petrovietnam in reporting and recommending to the Government about this project. After a period of working and considering, on December 27, 2000, the Government issued a decision to assign the Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation to invest in the construction of a fertilizer production plant in Phu My I Industrial Park, Ba Ria - Vung Tau province. When that decision was made, Mr. San signed the decision to establish the Phu My Fertilizer Plant Construction Management Board and successfully implemented the project. In December 2004, Phu My Fertilizer Plant was officially inaugurated.

Inauguration of Phu My Fertilizer Plant - Photo archive

However, it must be said that at that time, the decision to invest in the project was a very difficult decision, a great determination, because investing in the project had many risks. Many opinions said that investing in a fertilizer plant was a waste of resources, money and meaningless, because at that time the price of fertilizer was low, while selling gas would bring immediate profits. But up to now, the results achieved have shown that it was a very wise and correct decision, demonstrating a strategic and long-term vision. Phu My fertilizer products appearing on the market have fundamentally changed the supply and demand situation and the fertilizer market, contributing significantly to stabilizing the market. In addition, the price of food and fertilizer in the world has continuously increased, helping the project to quickly recover capital (after only 5 years of operation), and making an important contribution to the economy and agriculture of the country, so far Petrovietnam can meet more than 70% of the fertilizer for domestic demand and also export.

Nam Con Son gas pipeline

Or like the Nam Con Son Gas Project, which is a project to develop the Lan Tay - Lan Do gas field cluster in block 06 of Vietnam's continental shelf, discovered in 1993 by the Product Sharing Contract (PSC) Contractor Consortium including BP Group (United Kingdom), STATOIL (Kingdom of Norway) and ONGC (Republic of India). At that time, Petrovietnam sold gas to EVN at 23 cents/1 million Btu, but BP Group proposed a starting price for gas to Vietnam of 29 cents plus a transportation tariff of 3.2 cents, increasing by 2% each year. The problem is that the gas selling price to EVN is 23 cents while buying gas from BP at 29 cents, which is clearly a loss, and so many opinions have been raised that Petrovietnam will not participate. But at that time, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Xuan Gia emphasized that we must participate now because electricity cannot exist without gas, and the Nam Con Son Gas Project at that time decided to cooperate with the UK. Therefore, we must accept the risk. Mr. Tran Xuan Gia told Mr. San, "Now we have to take the risk, I will take the risk with you." Later, to sign the gas purchase contract, BP requested that it be signed with the State, but according to regulations, the State does not sign with enterprises, so Prime Minister Phan Van Khai directed Petrovietnam to sign on behalf of the Government and take responsibility for paying for the gas purchase to BP. Only later was BP persuaded to agree to let Petrovietnam sign. According to initial calculations, even the most optimistic people would not dare to think of the great benefits and contributions that the project brings to the country today. Since its inception, the project has always been considered an effective example in many aspects, not only contributing to the state budget but also making an important contribution to the development of Vietnam's young gas and electricity industry, effectively promoting the use of the country's precious natural gas resources for economic development, contributing to the formation of a professional, highly qualified and skilled workforce, international standards for the Oil and Gas industry. This is also a key project of the State's key program on Gas - Electricity - Fertilizer in Ba Ria-Vung Tau. Mr. San concluded that there are investment projects that, in addition to determination, must accept risks, require decisiveness, foresight and above all for the common goal of putting national interests and the development of the country first. He also affirmed that he and Petrovietnam's leaders would not have been able to make those decisions and visions without the Government behind them to direct and support them to the fullest extent, and the Government behind them are people who dare to do and dare to take responsibility. The successes in Petrovietnam's major projects all have the mark, support, and correct, timely, skillful, and wise direction of the Party and State leaders. Those are strategic decisions for the development of the industry, building and forming key projects, driving the development of the Oil and Gas industry in the future, as well as creating a "life-changing" for many regions, forming economic zones, making important contributions to the country.

Leaders of Petrovietnam, Vietnam Petroleum Association and New Energy Magazine pay tribute to Mr. Ngo Thuong San's contributions.

It can be said that throughout his life, Mr. Ngo Thuong San has always burned with a "flame of enthusiasm" to constantly contribute to the Oil and Gas industry and to the development of the country. From the first steps on the "journey to find the fire" to the work of preserving and developing that fire. Even when he retired, or now at the age of 86, he is still tirelessly "passing on the fire" with the desire to keep the oil and gas fire burning brightly in the East Sea and in the hearts of every oil and gas worker; contributing to the preservation and further development of the achievements of the industry as wished by Uncle Ho; worthy of the trust, solidarity and support of the Party, the Government and the people for the development of the industry.

Mai Phuong

Source: https://www.pvn.vn/chuyen-muc/tap-doan/tin/f6fe16dd-a0c0-4b79-9a89-78c3402152bd