VIETNAM

U.S. Oil Firms Urged to Return: Vietnam’s state oil company, Petrovietnam, says it wants American companies, which first discovered oil there before the end of the Vietnam War, to return with technology to help boost production. Ho Si Thoang, director general of Petrovietnam, told the weekly newspaper Nhan Dan Chu Nhat that U.S. companies had told him they wanted to return, but are banned by a U.S. trade embargo. Thoang met several U.S. government officials, economists and executives from oil and other companies during a U.S. trip in October. Vietnam pumped more than 5 million metric tons of crude oil in 1992. It has produced about 10 million metric tons of crude oil in a venture with Russia since 1986 from the offshore “Bach Ho” or White Tiger oil field.