With the guideline of “Discipline, Scientism, Quality and Prestige”, the Research and Engineering Institute (R&EI) has the following functions and duties:

• Provide exploration for oil and gas reservoirs and estimation of their reserves. 
• Develop oil fields; 
• Research and develop drilling technologies, design well drilling and work-over procedures 
• Research and develop drilling technologies of oil and gas production, gathering, treatment and transportation; 
• Prepare technical design, cost estimation of construction and repair of onshore & offshore facilities 
• Research and develop measures of environmental protection and safety of offshore facilities; 
• Make long-term and short-term plans of oil and gas reservoir development; 
• Work out material and manpower consumption norms; 
• Analyze oil, gas, water samples, oil products, various solvents and chemicals used for drilling, oil and gas production and corrosion protection of steel structures in offshore conditions 
• Supply services related to the above-mentioned areas.

To maintain and improve the Quality Management System as well as to meet the client requirements on quality and legislative norms, ISO 9001:2000 standard has been used in R & EI since September 2002.

The R &EI has a laboratory & analytical research centre 9 specialized sections that include 25 departments and 7 laboratories.

The total number of employees is 313 (240 Vietnamese, 73 Russians) including, 4 Doctors of Science, 31 Doctors of Philosophy, 33 leading specialists, and 257 highly qualified engineers and technicians.