Strategic breakthroughs in Petrovietnam's development journey.

Building upon the foundation of Vietnam's oil and gas industry, established over 65 years ago and continuing its journey of more than half a century of development, the Vietnam National Energy and Industry Corporation (Petrovietnam) is leveraging science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation as breakthrough drivers for growth. Mastering core technologies, developing high-quality human resources, and building an innovation ecosystem will be the foundation for the Corporation to enhance its competitiveness and ensure national energy security.

Báo Đại biểu Nhân dân•17/05/2026

The aspiration to conquer the energy value chain.

Driven by President Ho Chi Minh 's desire to build a "strong oil and gas industry," the establishment of the Oil Exploration Team 36 in 1961 marked the beginning of the journey to find "black gold" for the nation, while simultaneously laying the foundation for Vietnam's conquest of the oil and gas-energy value chain.

Over more than half a century of development, Petrovietnam has always linked its growth journey to mastering science and technology. Science and technology have helped generations of "fire seekers" overcome many important milestones: from geological surveys in the North, expanding oil and gas exploration on the Vietnamese continental shelf, to discovering economically valuable oil and gas fields at the seabed; from bringing the first gas flow ashore to serve industry and daily life to building and operating oil refineries, fertilizer plants, and gas-fired power plants; from adopting technology to gradually designing and manufacturing drilling rigs, offshore structures, and wind turbine foundations… Each step in the Group's development bears the indelible mark of the intelligence, courage, and ambition to conquer technology of generations of Petrovietnam workers.

Every step in the Group's development bears the distinct mark of the intelligence, courage, and ambition to conquer technology of generations of Petrovietnam workers. Photo: Khanh An

To date, Petrovietnam has developed relatively comprehensive scientific and technological capabilities within the oil and gas-energy value chain. Many strategic technologies have been mastered, such as oil extraction from fractured basement rock, design and fabrication of super-heavy offshore structures, underwater autonomous robots, ultra-cold LNG technology, combined cycle power generation, big data management, distillation and hydrocracking technologies in petrochemical refining…

Through the application of science and technology and innovation, Petrovietnam has researched, produced, and supplied to the market many products such as fertilizers, petroleum products, and liquefied petroleum gas, meeting approximately 70-80% of the domestic demand for nitrogen fertilizers and 60-70% of the domestic demand for petroleum products, making a significant contribution to ensuring national energy and food security. In the field of new materials, Petrovietnam has also achieved many notable results such as research on graphene, nanomaterials, and the application of CO2 _as a raw material for the production of new materials.

In particular, Petrovietnam is one of Vietnam's leading enterprises in science and technology achievements, with numerous prestigious awards, including 6 Ho Chi Minh Awards and 4 State Awards for Science and Technology, along with dozens of valuable international inventions.

Building a new energy platform.

While previously science and technology primarily helped Petrovietnam solve technical problems in the oil and gas industry, now science and technology are placed at the center of the Group's new growth model.

In the context of natural depletion of traditional oil and gas fields, increasingly complex extraction conditions, a rapidly fluctuating energy market, and a strong demand for energy transition, Petrovietnam cannot rely solely on resources, capital, and accumulated experience. The corporation needs to develop more based on knowledge, data, technology, high-quality human resources, and innovative capabilities.

Petrovietnam's development strategy until 2030, with a vision to 2050, identifies science and technology and innovation as the main driving force for breakthrough development, enhancing competitiveness, and building Petrovietnam into a strong national energy and industrial group in Vietnam, playing a core role in ensuring national energy security, while expanding into new energy fields, energy industry, and high-quality technical services.

This represents a fundamental shift: from a mindset of "applying technology to serve production" to "technology-based development"; from research on individual topics to building a science and technology ecosystem – innovation – digital transformation; and from addressing immediate technical problems to creating long-term technological capabilities for the future.

The core of this strategy is that science and technology must create new products, services, and competitive capabilities. The corporation should not only aim for "applying technology," but also "mastering technology"; not only "buying technology," but also "co-developing, localizing, and commercializing technology"; and not only serving internal needs, but also aiming to create technology products and services bearing the Petrovietnam brand.

Investing in people means investing in long-term technological capabilities.

Science and technology cannot develop without a workforce capable of receiving, operating, improving, and innovating technology. This is one of the important foundations that Petrovietnam has persistently built over the past decades.

Scientific research activities at Petrovietnam. Photo: Khanh An

According to the summary report, the entire Group currently has nearly 4,000 postgraduate-level staff, including many leading experts and a high-quality technical team, capable of implementing tasks with high scientific content. Petrovietnam's science and technology staff have now basically mastered the specialized fields in the entire oil and gas industry chain, from exploration and production, oil and gas processing, gas industry, power industry to oil and gas technical services.

Alongside human resource development, Petrovietnam has also invested heavily in research infrastructure, especially the Vietnam Petroleum Institute with its modern laboratories, analysis centers, specialized software, and research facilities. This is a crucial foundation for conducting in-depth research to serve production and business operations and develop strategic technological capabilities in the long term.

Looking further ahead, Petrovietnam's STEM Innovation program demonstrates the Group's proactive approach to preparing future science and technology human resources. This is not only a social responsibility activity but also an investment in "knowledge infrastructure," contributing to nurturing a generation of technology, engineering, and energy professionals for the country.

A science and technology strategy can only succeed when it is supported by appropriate operational mechanisms. Therefore, Petrovietnam is focusing on perfecting its internal institutions, financial mechanisms, policies to attract experts, models for managing science and technology tasks, testing mechanisms, risk acceptance mechanisms, and mechanisms for commercializing research results.

According to its published development plan, Petrovietnam aims to allocate at least 2% of its consolidated revenue or 10% of its consolidated profit annually to science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation. This is a crucial commitment to facilitating the systematic implementation of research programs, technology testing, new product development, and high-quality human resource training.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/dot-pha-chien-strateg-trong-hanh-trinh-phat-trien-petrovietnam-10417125.html