May 12 - State-owned, PetroVietnam announced efforts to control rising fuel and fertilizer costs by increasing domestic natural gas production and finding cheaper import alternatives.

In a press conference, the company vowed to cut waste and concentrate in its core business, saving an estimated VND550 billion (US$34.4 million).

"PetroVietnam will still inject capital into key projects for ports, warehouses and shipping fleets, but it will cease putting capital into real estate construction projects and other less-effective projects," management board member, Phan Thi Hoa, told VNS.

He said the company would review all projects and direct capital only to highly-prioritized projects.

PetroVietnam general director Tran Ngoc Canh said the company will also increase the capacity of its Nam Con Son gas plant to about 20 million cu.m daily.

"PetroVietnam has just won a tender to take part in a contract to exploit oil and gas in Russia," Canh said. "The group is expected to set up a joint venture with its Russian partner and complete procedures so as to ink the deal officially in July."

For the first four months of the year, PetroVietnam’s output increased by 45 percent to 2.2 billion cu.m of gas from the Nam Con Son and Bach Ho fields.