HANOI - Vietnam’s PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corp., or PVEP, has signed an agreement to sell a 5 percent working interest in an oil block offshore Vietnam to U.S.-based Murphy Oil Corp., the Vietnamese company said.

Under the agreement, PVEP will jointly develop the 15-1/05 production-sharing contract in Cuu Long basin off southern Vietnam with Murphy Oil and South Korea’s SK Innovation Co., PVEP said in a statement posted on its website on Thursday.

The company, the leading exploration-and-production arm of the state-run Vietnam Oil & Gas Group, or PetroVietnam, didn’t disclose the value of the deal.

PVEP said it hoped the cooperation with Murphy Oil would help it develop small-sized oil fields in a more efficient manner amid low oil prices.

Murphy Oil has already invested in other oil blocks offshore Vietnamese.