HANOI, Vietnam, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Vietnam is expected to be a boost to the Southeast Asian country's energy sector, including nuclear power.
Putin is scheduled to meet with Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and other officials as part of his visit, which begins Tuesday.
Deals likely to be signed, reported The Wall Street Journal, include those between Petrovietnam and Rosneft to jointly explore offshore oil in Russia and Vietnam, and a memorandum of understanding under which Rosneft would provide crude oil to Petrovietnam over the next three years.
In a message to the Vietnamese people published Monday in the VietNamNet Bridge newspaper, Putin noted that the energy, oil and gas sectors "have traditionally played a key role in the development of Russia-Vietnam industrial and investment cooperation."
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Nuclear power is also likely to be high on the agenda for Putin's visit.
Russia is helping Vietnam "to develop a nuclear industry which is a totally new sector for the country," the president said in his advance message.
Vietnam is teaming with Russian utility and energy company Rosatom on the country's first nuclear power plant, a two-reactor facility, in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan, which is scheduled to come online in 2020.
"Vietnam will prioritize nuclear power development" to address its power crunch, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said at a Vietnam-Russia business forum last month, Vietweek reports.
Vietnam aims to supply at least 6 percent of its electricity from nuclear power by 2030 and wants to have a total of eight nuclear power plants and 13 reactors by that time. It could become one of the world's largest new nuclear markets, says the Journal report.
While the country's total electricity output is expected to reach 130 billion kilowatt hours this year, output could increase to 834 billion kilowatt hours when the 13 reactors are operating.
"I cannot think of any national energy plan without nuclear power for such a big country with a lot of potential as Vietnam," Joonhong Ahn, a nuclear professor at the University of California in Berkeley told Vietweek.
Vietnam is on course to become the first Southeast Asian nation to commission a working nuclear plant.
"Among the ASEAN countries, it appears that Vietnam possesses the most concrete plans for developing nuclear power, including both a definite time frame for the construction of nuclear plants and business deals concluded with Russia," Kevin Punzalan, a researcher at De La Salle-College of St. Benilde in the Philippines who has surveyed plans for nuclear energy development across Southeast Asia, told Vietweek.
Last month, the United States and Vietnam agreed to allow American companies to develop civilian nuclear power in Vietnam. Japan and South Korea have also shown interest in Vietnam's nuclear power sector.
