US, Vietnam firms sign deals on energy and minerals

Vietnamese and Americans firms have signed a series of deals on energy and minerals during a visit to the United States by Vietnam’s trade minister, state media and one of the firms said on Friday.

Vietnamese companies are in talks with US firms to buy American crude oil and LNG, said state-controlled PetroVietnam Power, which is a signatory to one of the deals and has executives accompanying the minister on the trip.

Vietnamese trade minister Nguyen Hong Dien is in the United States to discuss trade cooperation, as the Southeast Asian country scrambles to avoid reciprocal tariffs that the Trump administration has threatened globally to reduce America’s trade deficit.

PetroVietnam Power in a statement said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with GE Vernova to buy GE equipment for gas-fired power plants.

It did not elaborate on the agreements signed, but said they valued at $4.15 billion. Reuters could not independently confirm that figure.

Other deals include those between PetroVietnam Gas and Conoco Phillips and Excelerate and between Vietnamese oil refiner Binh Son and Kellogg Brown & Root, according to PetroVietnam Power and state media reports.

Other agreements are between Vietnam’s fuel trading firm Petrolimex and the US Grains Council, Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy, and a mineral processing cooperation deal between Masan Group with US International Development Finance Corp, they said.

The trip came ahead of a deadline US President Donald Trump has set next month for federal agencies to complete comprehensive reviews of a range of trade issues, including analyses of persistent US trade deficits.

In Asia, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Thailand are those most exposed to the possibility of increases in US tariffs due to their high export-to-GDP ratios with the United States, according to a Reuters analysis.

(By Khanh Vu; Editing by John Mair and Martin Petty)