The Electricity Group of Vietnam is confident that they can well afford the power demand for the country in 2013, as general director Pham Le Thanh stated at a media meeting on Tuesday.

This is the first time over the last 59 years the state-run utility, commonly known as EVN, is able to confirm that it has an excess power supply, Thanh told reporters in Hanoi.

The installation capacity of the national grid has totaled 34,000MW, while the usable capacity is around 23,000MW, despite the highest consumption capacity being only 20,000MW.

“This means power investment is one step ahead of consumption,” said Thanh.

In related news, state-run oil and gas giant PetroVietnam announced on Tuesday that they have temporarily suspended the investment project in Venezuela pending a positive improvement from the investment environment.

PVN chairman Phung Dinh Thuc told a regular press meeting that its Venezuelan project has been impeded by the economic woes and exorbitant forex rates, with rates on the unofficial market ten times higher than the official ones.

Thuc added that the company is also negotiating with its Venezuelan partners to change some of the commitments it had pledged.

The Venezuela investment project of PVN, fully known as the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, is the Junin 2 – Venezuela oil rig, which is its largest outbound investment, costing an enormous US$12 billion, according to a PVN statement in April 2013.

In 2013, PVN contributed VND195 trillion, or $9.2 billion, to the state budget.