US, Vietnamese Firms Sign Billions in Energy, Mineral Deals

Vietnamese leaders have scrambled to sign some big deals with the United States in a bid to reduce their trade imbalance with the US and the likelihood of punishing tariffs from the Trump administration.

Firms from Vietnam signed a series of energy and mineral agreements with American companies during a visit to the United States by Vietnam’s trade minister, according to state media and one of the firms on Friday.

Vietnamese companies are in talks to buy American crude oil and LNG, said state-controlled PetroVietnam Power, which is a signatory to one of the deals and has executives accompanying the minister on the trip.

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Vietnamese trade minister Nguyen Hong Dien is in the United States to discuss trade cooperation, as the Southeast Asian country rushes to avoid reciprocal tariffs that the Trump administration has threatened globally to reduce America’s trade deficit.

Power plant equipment, oil, mineral deals

PetroVietnam Power in a statement said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with GE Vernova to buy GE equipment for gas-fired power plants.

It did not elaborate on the agreements signed, but said they valued at $4.15 billion. Reuters could not independently confirm that figure.

Other deals include those between PetroVietnam Gas and Conoco Phillips and Excelerate and between Vietnamese oil refiner Binh Son and Kellogg Brown & Root, according to PetroVietnam Power and state media reports.

Other agreements are between Vietnam’s fuel trading firm Petrolimex and the US Grains Council, Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy, and a mineral processing cooperation deal between Masan Group with US International Development Finance Corp, they said.

The trip came ahead of a deadline US President Donald Trump has set next month for federal agencies to complete comprehensive reviews of a range of trade issues, including analyses of persistent US trade deficits.

In Asia, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Thailand are those most exposed to the possibility of increases in US tariffs due to their high export-to-GDP ratios with the United States, according to a Reuters analysis.