Vung Tau: city of tourism, oil & gas

An attractive tourist peninsula

At the end of the 19th century, when setting foot on the beautiful peninsula, the French realized that Vung Tau was an ideal tourist area with a temperate climate, cool weather all year round and a long coast with blue water. So they quickly built many motels, health resorts and hotels there. Many buildings with French architectural features mushroomed and Vung Tau became the first marine tourism city in Viet Nam.

More than a century has passed and Vung Tau has proven to be one of the most renowned tourist destinations of Viet Nam. It has an ideal climate and beautiful beaches, such as Truoc, Sau, Dua, Nghin Phong and Chi Linh, many unique historical and cultural relics, such as Bach Dinh, the lighthouse, Thang Tam Temple and folk festivals, such as the Nghinh Ong festival and Trung Cuu festival. The development and interaction with a new culture have also created other festivals of new and modern styles, like the world culinary culture festival, the international kite festival and the sea festival.

To have a panoramic view of Vung Tau we followed a path, which winds its way around Nho (Small) Mountain, to reach Viet Nam’s oldest lighthouse. It is 100 years old and 18m high and projects light as far as 35 miles. Seen from the lighthouse, Vung Tau is very beautiful and fascinating with the blue sea, high mountains and a carpet of green trees. Far away there is a cable car station leading to Ho May Tourist Site on Lon (Big) Mountain. Sitting in the cabin of the cable car, we saw Bai Truoc (Front Beach) appear with spectacular reefs. Lying amidst the forests of teak trees and Plumeria trees is the Bach Dinh (White Palace), a renowned historical and cultural relic which still preserves many vestiges of patriotic King Thanh Thai.

Our cable car arrived at the top of Big Mountain. Situated on the coastal city, Ho May tourist site has distinctive scenery with mountains and forests, fresh and cool air and an average temperature of 22-250C. It is a fascinating eco-tourist site. Here visitors can walk along small paths to contemplate the wild beauty of the mountains and forests of Lagerstroemia speciosa trees and participate in outdoor activities, such as camping overnight in the forests of Caribbean pine trees and cherry trees.

Besides the tourist sites that are operating, Vung Tau has more new tourist projects. The Vung Tau-Dragon Sea Conference and Exhibition Center project is expected to create a breakthrough for Vung Tau tourism to attract international and wealthy visitors. The Sai Gon Atlantis Hotel project with a total registered capital of over US$ 4.1 billion by the US Winvest Investment – LLC Group is a 5-star tourism complex of international stature. It includes garden villas and an 18-storey hotel, motorbike racing, sport competitions, boat racing and a museum of sea creatures.

According to Phan Hoa Binh, Chairman of Vung Tau City People’s Committee, with the orientation of making tourism become a spearhead economic sector, the city will concentrate its sources on the development of services, tourism and trade. It will also concentrate investment on the planning, improvement and construction of the urban infrastructure in accordance with modern urban standards to make Vung Tau become an attractive marine tourism city.

An oil and gas center of Viet Nam

With the potential of oil and gas production at sea, Vung Tau is also a center of the oil and gas industry of Viet Nam. Initially, the Viet Nam-Soviet Oil and Gas Joint Venture Enterprise, which is now Viet Nam-Russia Oil and Gas Joint Venture (Vietsovpetro), was established in 1981. It is Viet Nam’s first joint venture with a foreign country in the field of oil and gas. Later, for the first time, Vetsovpetro found industrial oil reserves at the Bach Ho (White Tiger) field on the Vung Tau-Con Dao continental shelf in 1984, making the formation of an oil and gas center of Viet Nam in Vung Tau.

Now, Vung Tau is not only the capital of the oil and gas exploration and exploitation sector with the participation of dozens of oil and gas groups in the world, but also a centre of high-tech services for the oil and gas industry, with a complex of plants manufacturing almost every specialized equipment of the oil and gas industry. Vietsovpetro alone, the “eldest brother,” division of the oil and gas industry in Viet Nam has brought to the country over US$ 60 billion.

Over the past 30 years, with ever more modern and comprehensive material facilities ashore and offshore Vietsovpetro has expanded its operations, both in width and depth to other countries around the world, contributing to making Viet Nam become the 3rd largest oil and gas exploitation country in Southeast Asia.

At present Vietsovpetro is also a centre of research, invention and application of new technology and a centre of human resource training for the oil and gas industry in Viet Nam. It has constantly expanded its geological exploration activities and has actively participated in the projects of the Viet Nam National Oil and Gas group (PetroVietNam) to expand its activities to other countries in Africa and South America and in the region.

Vung Tau City has an oil and gas service port of a large scale, which plays an important role in providing port service supports and logistics for the exploration and exploitation activities of the oil and gas contractors in Viet Nam.

Taking advantage of the oil and gas resource potential, Vung Tau is investing in developing the industrial zones with the industries relating to oil and gas, such as the refining of petrochemicals, processing of gas products, generating electricity, production of steels, chemicals, fertilizers and construction materials and other industries using gas as fuel and raw materials. A typical industrial zone is the Dong Xuyen IZ.

In the island commune of Long Son, many projects on exploiting, processing and supplying oil and gas products are also under construction and are drawing investors’ attention.

With abundant economic and tourism potential, Vung Tau City is rising to become a developing, dynamic center  of tourism, oil and gas in the region./.

VNP