Up to 9.43 billion RUB of the sum will be allocated to Vietnam , reported the Vedomosti newspaper on Dec. 8.

This will be Gazprom’s largest-ever investment as the group has just spent 2 billion RUB exploring for gas in Russia’s continental shelf and the planned capital for its big gas project in the Shtokman field is less than 13 billion RUB.

The group expects to begin production in India by 2012 and in Vietnam three years later, with a total combined output equivalent to nearly 1.1 billion tonnes of oil.

Gazprom is now searching for gas in a field in the Gulf of Bengal in India and six other fields in Vietnam’s continental shelf./.