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Putin on tour to North Korea and Vietnam

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Putin says Novatek plans new LNG projects in Vietnam

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Zarubezhneft gets investment license for offshore block

(Adds detail throughout)

HANOI/MOSCOW, June 20 (Reuters) - Russian President

Vladimir Putin said during a visit to Vietnam on Thursday that

Russia was keen to partner with the southeast Asian country in

energy and security.

Russia, a major energy, natural resources and nuclear power,

pivoted to Asia after the West imposed sanctions on Moscow for

the conflict in Ukraine.

A day after signing a mutual defence agreement with North

Korea, Putin said that Moscow and Hanoi were interested in

building what he called a reliable security architecture in the

Asia-Pacific region.

"We will also increase the efficiency of cooperation on

these projects in the energy and gas sectors in order to create

favorable conditions for the work of our companies," Putin said.

The Russian leader made the comments in a televised news

briefing with Vietnamese President To Lam.

Putin said separately at the meeting with Vietnamese

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh that Russia was ready to set up

long-term supplies of LNG to the country, according to RIA

Novosti news wire.

Russia has long cooperated with Vietnam in the oil and

gas sector with the state-run company Zarubezhneft being at the

forefront of that business.

Vietsovpetro, a joint venture (JV) 49%-owned by

Zarubezhneft and the rest by Vietnamese state oil firm

PetroVietnam, will produce 250 million barrels of crude oil from

Vietnam's offshore fields by Friday, Vietnam's government said

late on Tuesday.

The JV, which has reported revenue of $88 billion since

its formation in 1981, has, however, been facing shrinking oil

reserves at its fields, the statement said.

According to the Kremlin, Zarubezhneft has also acquired

an investment license for development of offshore hydrocarbon

block 11-2, while Russia's largest LNG producer Novatek

and PetroVietnam signed a memorandum of understanding

and cooperation.

Putin wrote in an

opinion piece

published on Wednesday in the newspaper of Vietnam's

Communist Party that Novatek "plans to launch liquefied natural

gas (LNG) projects in Vietnam", without elaborating.

Moscow-based BCS brokerage said in a note that Novatek

is unlikely to announce a new project in Vietnam in the next

three to five years as it would focus on its domestic projects

in the Arctic.