​Vietnam’s top oil executive seeks to resign

According to procedures, Son's resignation has to be approved by the State Capital Management Committee and the Prime Minister.

Son, in the oil and gas industry since 1987, has held many key positions at PetroVietnam's (PVN) subsidiaries.

He has been the deputy general director of the Vietnamese-Russian company Vietsovpetro, as well as director and deputy Party secretary of Vietsovpetro's Oil and Gas Production Division.

Son was appointed general director of PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation (PVEP) in July 2009, then served as PVN's deputy general director from February 2012 until being promoted to general director and board member in March 2016.

During his time as PVN's general director, PVEP carried out many investment projects overseas, including an oil production project in Venezuela's Junin-2 Oil Field.

According to the project's investment certificate, in the first phase of operation from 2010-2015, PVEP was to invest about $1.82 billion into the project, which would produce 50,000 barrels per day in the first phase and 200,000 per day in phase 2.

To carry out this project, PVEP formed the PetroMacareo joint venture with Petroleum of Veneuela (PDVSA), with the former contributing 40 percent of the capital.

The project, however, made little progress and the prime minister in December 2013 instructed PVEP to suspend the investment.