Decree No. 124/2017/ND-CP dated November 15, 2017 of the Government on prescribing offshore investment in petroleum activities

DECREE

Prescribing offshore investment in petroleum activities^[1]

Pursuant to the June 19, 2015 Law on Organization of the Government;

Pursuant the November 26, 2014 Investment Law;

Pursuant to the November 26, 2014 Law on Management and Use of State Capital Invested in Production and Business at Enterprises;

Pursuant to the June 18, 2014 Law on Public Investment;

At the proposal of the Minister of Industry and Trade;

The Government promulgates the Decree prescribing offshore investment in petroleum activities.

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope of regulation

1. This Decree prescribes investors’ offshore investment in petroleum activities.

2. This Decree does not regulate offshore investment in petroleum projects in the form prescribed at Point d, Clause 1, Article 52 of the Investment Law.

3. Investors making offshore investment in petroleum activities must comply with the Investment Law, this Decree and other relevant laws. In case this Decree and other decrees prescribe the same matter differently, the former will prevail.  

Article 2. Subjects of application

This Decree applies to state management agencies, investors, and agencies and organizations related to offshore investment in petroleum activities.

Article 3. Interpretation of terms

In this Decree, the terms below are construed as follows:

1. Petroleum activities means activities of oil and gas prospecting and exploration, oilfield development and oil and gas exploitation, including also those carried out by investors to directly serve these activities such as formulating petroleum projects and commercializing oil and gas exploited under petroleum projects.

2. Petroleum contract means a written document signed between a representative of a petroleum resource owner and an investor or other partners then the investor participates in the contract through acquiring contract-participating interests or in another form in accordance with the law of the investment-receiving country or territory (below collectively referred to as host country).

3. Operator means a legal person that is established by an investor participating in an overseas petroleum project in accordance with law, established under the agreement between the investor and its partner, hired or designated by the investor overseas, or an individual who is designated or hired by the investor to carry out petroleum activities in such project under the agreement between involved parties and the law of the host country.

4. Operating company means an organization established by an investor under Article 17 of this Decree and relevant laws to prepare for investment in, carry out activities to formulate, or operate and implement, an overseas petroleum project in accordance with the law of the host country or international petroleum practices.

5. Offshore investment capital means the whole amount of money and assets transferred abroad by an investor to acquire the right to participate in, or contribute capital to, a project and the amount of shared profits the investor retains for reinvestment in the project. The recovered capital (cost) amount remitted home by the investor will be cleared against the total capital amount transferred abroad to determine the investor’s offshore investment capital at a certain point of time.

6. Profit of an investor means the volume of oil and gas the investor receives as after-tax profit under a petroleum contract, or the amount of dividends the investor receives under a joint-venture contract or from the joint-stock company, or after-tax remuneration and bonuses of the investor under a service contract, after subtracting the project’s irrecoverable expenses allocated in the period, and other profits (if any) under a petroleum contract.

7. Direct representative of the owner at an enterprise with 100% state-held charter capital is a person who is appointed by a competent state agency to the Members’ Council or as the company president to perform the powers and responsibilities of the representative of the state owner at the enterprise.

8. National Foreign Investment Portal is the portal which is used to carry out procedures for granting and modifying investment registration certificates and offshore investment registration certificates; publishing and updating legal documents, policies, processes and conditions on investment applicable to foreign investors, foreign-invested economic institutions carrying out business investment activities in Vietnam and organizations and individuals making offshore investment. The domain name of the National Foreign Investment Portal is dautunuocngoai.gov.vn or fdi.gov.vn.

9. National offshore investment database is a collection of data and information on offshore investment projects nationwide which are stored and managed within the national system of information on foreign investment in Vietnam and Vietnam’s offshore investment. Information stored in the national offshore investment database is original information on offshore investment projects.

10. National system of information on foreign investment in Vietnam and Vietnam’s offshore investment is a system of specialized information on foreign investment and offshore investment which is developed and operated by the Ministry of Planning and Investment in coordination with other agencies to send, receive, store and display or otherwise process data in order to serve the state management of offshore investment.

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