Executives at Talisman Energy Inc. are excited about promising oil-and-gas prospects off the coast of Vietnam and the Canadian company is gearing up to drill two exploratory wells there this year.

"I would describe these as world-class exploration blocks," says Paul Ferneyhough, the Calgary, Alberta, company's vice president for Asia-Pacific operations. The U.S. calculates that the South China Sea likely holds nearly 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

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