State oil group Petrovietnam and Russia's state-owned Zarubezhneft are considering a second joint venture in Russia that would explore for oil and gas in the Barents Sea, the Vietnamese firm said.

Officials of the two firms discussed the possible new venture at a meeting this week, Petrovietnam said in a statement issued late on Thursday as Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang began a visit to Moscow.

The statement gave no further details of the venture.

Petrovietnam and Zarubezhneft have been pumping oil and gas off Vietnam's southern coast through a 51/49 joint venture, Vietsovpetro, since 1981.

A second venture, Rusvietpetro, has been working in Russia's Nenetsky autonomous region since 2010, and aims to raise its crude oil output by 32.5 percent in 2012 to 2 million tonnes, or 40,160 barrels per day.

Petrovietnam said the first oil from Rusvietpetro's third field, West Hosedayuskoye, was expected during Sang's visit to Russia this week, and the venture's output would rise to 3 million tonnes in 2013.

Exploration of the remote Barents Sea in the Arctic region has been booming after some recent large discoveries.

Reuters.com