Developing an assessment tool for applying investment incentives for marginal fields under a hybrid regulatory impact assessment framework
Abstract
The Petroleum Law of Viet Nam [1], for the first time, introduces the concept of marginal oil and gas fields, thereby establishing a legal basis for applying investment incentive policies to fields with limited economic viability or unfavorable development conditions. For fields in the late stage of production, investments are primarily considered as incremental investments aimed at maximizing resource recovery. Practical experience shows that investment incentives for marginally economic projects are more effective when supported by consistent quantitative criteria and evaluation tools.
This research proposes adopting a hybrid regulatory impact assessment (RIA) [2] approach, combining ex-ante and ex-post RIA, to develop an assessment tool for assessing and applying investment incentive policies for marginal fields. Drawing on international experience and practical implementation at PVEP, the paper develops a logical framework for assessing the impacts of investment incentive policies on project economic performance and government revenues [1, 2].
The research results indicate that the proposed hybrid RIA-based tool enhances the transparency, consistency, and applicability of investment incentive policies, while supporting the effective implementation of the 2022 Petroleum Law for small-scale oil and gas fields with complex development conditions.
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