Dealers vow sufficient petrol supplies

Petrol and oil supply could well meet the domestic demand by June, according to domestic petrol and oil dealers.

Le Xuan Trinh, deputy general director of PV Oil, said that his company had so far supplied an average output of 270,000 tonnes of petrol per month without cutting supplies to its sales agents.

The Viet Nam National Petroleum Corporation (Petrolimex) confirmed that it would have enough petrol and oil products to service the domestic market by the end of the second quarter of this year.

Bui Ngoc Bao, Petrolimex chairman and general director, said that his corporation imported 3.7 million tonnes of petrol and oil during the first four months of this year, 60 per cent of the total minimum import quota for such types of products, in order to boost its stock.

“So far, Petrolimex has signed contracts for the import of 5 million additional tonnes of petrol and oil during the second quarter, enough to meet the domestic demand, in order to ensure a market growth rate of 17 per cent,” said Bao.

Nguyen Van Nam, a representative from the Viet Nam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), said that the Dung Quat Oil Refinery Plant operated at full capacity in order to supply 2 million tonnes of petrol and oil for the domestic market during the first four months of this year.

Bao said that the trading of petrol and oil was experiencing difficulties at the moment due to the increase of petrol and oil prices around the world.

During the first four months, the world crude oil price increased 23 per cent while the world petrol and diesel oil prices rose 32 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively.

High prices had created pressure on domestic petrol and oil prices in the first four months during which the government urged dealers not to increase sales prices for petrol and oil products in the domestic market, Bao said.

Since the start of this year, domestic petrol and oil prices have increased two times by VND2,900 per litre to VND19,300 per litre on February 24 and by VND2,000 per litre to VND21,300 (US$1.02) per litre on March 29.

Bao said Viet Nam’s current domestic petrol and oil prices were still lower than the prices in Laos and Cambodia which meant that the illegal smuggling of petrol and oil would continue. The state was responsible for putting a stop to this situation in order to ensure enough volume for local consumption.

There have been rumours that domestic sales price for petrol and oil is set to increase by VND2,700 a litre to VND24,000 a litre during coming days.

The Ministry of Finance confirmed that the rumours were not true while urging dealers to help maintain stability in current domestic petrol and oil prices. The current price is set at VND21,300 for petrol and VND21,000 for diesel oil. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam petrol, Vietnam Petrol prices