Professionalism - a cultural trait of PETROVIETNAM
Over generations, the skills, experience, learning spirit, apprenticeship, and technological mastery of the workforce have accumulated, becoming an integral part of PETROVIETNAM's cultural identity.
From dependence to mastery
Looking back at the development journey of the Vietnam National Energy and Industry Corporation ( PETROVIETNAM ) over the past half-century, Professor Ho Si Thoang - former Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation (the predecessor of PETROVIETNAM) - believes that one of PETROVIETNAM's greatest achievements is the maturity of its workforce. From being dependent on foreign experts, PETROVIETNAM's workforce has rapidly matured, gradually taking on key positions and demonstrating capabilities on par with international partners.
That maturity is demonstrated through very specific tasks and projects.
Oil and gas exploration activities at the Bach Ho field.
The Bach Ho field is a prime example. After the first commercial oil production in 1986, the Vietsovpetro joint venture faced a unique challenge when it discovered and extracted oil from a fractured granite basement rock layer in 1988. This special geological characteristic presented a series of problems regarding oil reservoir modeling, drilling, extraction, maintaining reservoir pressure, and improving the recovery factor.
Through research and practical experience, Vietsovpetro's experts and engineers have gradually mastered technological solutions for extracting oil from basement rock formations. The success at Bach Ho opens up a new direction for exploration on the Vietnamese continental shelf, and simultaneously becomes a practical environment for the rapid growth of Vietnamese oil and gas engineers, directly participating in all stages from drilling, construction, and installation to operation, exploitation, and handling offshore situations.
While Bach Ho demonstrates the maturation process stemming from practical exploration and exploitation, the journey of Vietnam Petroleum Technical Services Corporation ( PTSC ) represents a remarkable leap forward in technical service capabilities. From its early stages lacking infrastructure, equipment, and service experience, generations of PTSC employees have learned, worked, and invested simultaneously to accumulate resources. From these initial services, the PTSC team has gradually expanded into production, manufacturing, and other technical fields with increasingly demanding requirements.
PTSC is gradually becoming more deeply involved in the global offshore energy supply chain.
Over the years, PTSC and its highly capable and experienced workforce have transitioned from providing individual services to mastering the entire EPC/EPCI chain; from surveying, design, procurement, fabrication, transportation, installation, connection, commissioning to operation and maintenance.
PTSC's capabilities, built on traditional oil and gas, continue to expand into the offshore renewable energy sector. PTSC's implementation of foundation and substation projects for offshore wind power projects for international partners demonstrates a shift from manufacturing individual oil and gas structures to mass-producing oversized and heavy structures to meet high demands for productivity, timelines, and international standards.
Along with offshore projects, the journey from dependence to mastery of capabilities is also clearly demonstrated in the maintenance and repair work at PETROVIETNAM's plants. To date, the majority of the work is carried out by the plants' own engineers and experts, in collaboration with units within the PETROVIETNAM ecosystem. Typical examples include downstream plants such as the Phu My Fertilizer Plant, the Ca Mau Fertilizer Plant, and the Dung Quat Oil Refinery. Many specialized tasks that previously relied on foreign experts, or even only experts from the licensee, are now gradually being undertaken by domestic teams with sufficient capacity.
Most of the maintenance and repair work on downstream plants is carried out by the plants' own team of engineers and experts, in coordination with units within the PETROVIETNAM ecosystem (Photo: Phu My Fertilizer Plant).
The capacity for mastery has also expanded from machinery and equipment to data and technologies serving intelligent management and operation. At the Ca Mau Fertilizer Plant, the "Smart Plant" project has completed phase 1, building a centralized data warehouse and a reporting system on Power BI to support production, maintenance, and repair. Ca Mau Petroleum Fertilizer Corporation (PVCFC) is expanding into quality management, HSE, raw materials, and AI applications; while simultaneously developing Data Lakehouse, Big Data, Digital Twin, enhancing automation, and supporting data-driven decision-making.
These milestones also demonstrate that the requirement for "professional expertise" has always gone hand in hand with PETROVIETNAM's development process: from mastering work, equipment, and technology to data exploitation, applying artificial intelligence, and expanding into new energy fields.
"The more talented you are, the more you need to learn."
Speaking about the PETROVIETNAM team today, Professor Ho Si Thoang emphasized: "The more skilled you are, the more you must learn," because science and technology change very quickly, and doing well today does not mean you can stand still tomorrow.
That is also a characteristic of PETROVIETNAM's culture. Skills are not naturally formed and are not limited to one generation. Knowledge comes from school, while experience is only accumulated after many years working on projects. To continuously improve the capabilities of the entire team, these two streams of knowledge must be interconnected.
The team of experts and engineers operating the Ca Mau Fertilizer Plant.
On offshore platforms, stories of past incidents, handled situations, or safety lessons are passed down from senior engineers and workers to the next generation. In factories, every anomaly is analyzed for its cause, solutions are standardized into procedures, and shift workers are retrained. In this way, one person's experience becomes the knowledge of the entire team.
Along with on-the-job training and apprenticeship programs, PETROVIETNAM has established a specialized training system with the Vietnam Petroleum University (PVU) and the Petroleum College (PVCollege), creating an important foundation for preparing and continuously improving the quality of human resources.
PVCollege focuses on training technical personnel, vocational skills, safety and environmental practices, and professional development for workers. The program is increasingly tailored to job positions and competency frameworks, following the philosophy of "Teaching to do - teaching according to needs - teaching to adapt to the times"; while also promoting the models of "Bringing businesses into schools" and "Bringing schools into businesses".
PETROVIETNAM has established a specialized training system with PVU and PVCollege, creating an important foundation for preparing and continuously improving the quality of human resources (Photo: Offshore construction safety training course of PVCollege).
Meanwhile, PVU is responsible for training high-level human resources, linking training with scientific research, innovation, and the practical needs of PETROVIETNAM; strengthening links with units, businesses, and international partners in training, research, and technology transfer.
As Professor Ho Si Thoang observed, science and technology, machinery, and equipment are very important, but ultimately, it is still necessary to have people with sufficient expertise to master them. Looking back on the journey so far, this is precisely how the PETROVIETNAM team has matured: learning from experts, from practical project experience, then progressing from receiving knowledge to operating, improving, and mastering it. The specialized training system, on-the-job training, and the transmission of experience between generations help to extend this knowledge stream as the technology and development space of the Group change.
The PETROVIETNAM team has rapidly matured, gradually taking on key positions and now has the capability to stand on par with international partners.
After 65 years of formation and development, PETROVIETNAM's legacy lies not only in the oil fields, drilling rigs, pipelines, and factories that have been built, but also in the team that has gone from apprenticeship to expertise, from receiving the job to becoming the master.
Therefore, "Keeping the flame of heritage alive" also means preserving and continuing to cultivate the professional capabilities accumulated by many generations of PETROVIETNAM workers, while "Building national energy" means taking those capabilities to new levels, so that from the foundation they have mastered today, the PETROVIETNAM team will continue to be able to receive, develop, and master the technologies and projects of the future.
THE 17TH PETROVIETNAM CULTURE WEEK 2026
The 17th PETROVIETNAM Culture Week in 2026 is a comprehensive cultural event throughout the Group, aiming to celebrate the 65th anniversary of PETROVIETNAM's founding and the 35th anniversary of the establishment of the PETROVIETNAM Trade Union.
The opening ceremony of the PETROVIETNAM Culture Week and PETROVIETNAM Sports Festival 2026 for the Northern region took place on the morning of August 22nd at the Cau Giay Gymnasium, 35 Tran Quy Kien Street, Cau Giay Ward, Hanoi. The Southern region's sports festival will open on September 5th at the Vietsovpetro Joint Venture Culture and Sports Center, Ho Chi Minh City.
In response to Culture Week, PETROVIETNAM implemented many practical activities, most notably the online competition "I love Petrovietnam - 65 years of preserving heritage, building national energy"; the 9th Oil and Gas Skills Competition, and many other activities.
Through this series of activities, the core values of "Aspiration - Intelligence - Professionalism - Compassion" continue to be nurtured and transformed into action; contributing to spreading the spirit of "One Team - One Goal," building a workforce that is physically healthy, mentally strong, professionally competent, and full of aspirations to contribute.
vietnam.vn