The block covers an area in excess of 5,000 square kilometres and is adjacent to Salamander’s operated Block Cuu Long River Delta 01 (DBSCL-01) production sharing contract. Salamander is also the operator of Block 31 and has a 60% working interest in the block.

“Salamander has long since recognised Block 31 as attractive exploration acreage and today’s announcement represents further progress in our building of an upstream business in Viet Nam,” said James Menzies, chief executive of Salamander.

“When taken together with Block DBSCL-01, we now operate a 13,000 sq-km swath of acreage across graben systems which we believe are analogous to the highly prolific Cuu Long Basin, which lies to the east of our blocks,” Menzies added.