Vietnam to open oil and gas university

Resource-rich Vietnam is to build its first university dedicated to training people to work in the oil and gas industry, the government said Thursday, as it ramps up production.
The university will be a unit of state-run Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group and based in Vinh Phuc province, 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Hanoi, the government said.
Expected to open in 2015, it will be able to train 17,000 students annually, it added.
Vietnam is rich in offshore oil reserves located in the South China Sea.
PetroVietnam -- the trading name of the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group -- exploits several major offshore fields, mostly in the Nam Con Son and Cuu Long basins together with Russian and other foreign partners.
In February the country opened its first oil refinery, the 2.5-billion-dollar Dung Quat facility in central Quang Ngai province.
The refinery is expected to produce 6.5 million tonnes a year or 148,000 barrels per day, about 30 percent of the country's needs.
PetroVietnam is designing another refinery, in the north, and has tentative plans for a third in a bid to attain energy autonomy for the country.