Local petroleum market unaffected by Shell Singapore refinery explosion

Key petroleum importers and distributors in Vietnam have affirmed that the Shell refinery explosion in Singapore will in no way affect the supply, saying that they will ensure the normal supply to the domestic market.

Tran Huu Phuc, Director of Vinapco, the only air petrol suppliers in Vietnam, has affirmed that the explosion in Singapore will not affect the company’s plan to import air petrol for domestic consumption.

Phuc said that Vinapco imports petrol from different sources in Singapore. “In previous years, Shell was also a supplier to Vinapco. However, it did not win the bid to become our supplier this year, therefore, we will not have imports from the manufacturer this year,” Phuc said.

Also according to him, once the supply interrupts, it may cause price fluctuations. In this case, purchase and sale activities will still be carried out as usual. Since the supply keeps profuse, air transport activities will not see any big changes.

At present, Vinapco imports 100,000 cubic meters of air petrol, of which only a small proportion of products comes from Singapore. Vinapco’s main suppliers are from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and South Korea.

Vuong Dinh Dung, General Director of the Military Petroleum Corporation, has also affirmed that the corporation does not import petrol from Singapore. Therefore, he has assured that the explosion at Shell’s refinery in Singapore will not affect its import plan.

He believes that other Vietnamese enterprises also do not purchase products from Shell in big quantities, because the standard quality of Shell is much higher than Vietnamese standards.

Currently, the Military Petroleum Corporation mostly imports petrol from Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and China, about 40,000 cubic meters a month.

“We are sure that we will keep the supply stable, and the supply will be unaffected by the Shell’s explosion,” Dung said.

Meanwhile, Vuong Thai Dung, Deputy General Director of Petrolimex (the Vietnam Petroleum Import-Export Corporation), which is holding 60 percent of the domestic petroleum distribution market, said that since Shell is the biggest refinery in Singapore, the explosion will, to some extend, have impacts on the regional petroleum market. The fact that the refinery has to halt operation will lead to some consequences, but it is still unclear about the impact levels.

However, Dung has affirmed that Petrolimex will fully satisfy the domestic market’s demand. “If we do not purchase from Shell, we will import from others. In general, we will provide enough petrol to the market,” he said.

Nguyen Hoai Giang, General Director of the Binh Son Petrochemical Corporation, which is running the Dung Quat oil refinery, said that Dung Quat is providing 30 percent of the total demand to the domestic market. Dung Quat has resumed its operation after the maintenance period, and it is running at full capacity.

Giang said that Dung Quat provides 3 million tons of diesel, 2.5 million tons of A92 and A95 petrol and 300,000 tons of air fuel JA1 a year.

Sources from the Ministry of Finance have also affirmed that the domestic market remains stable and that no impacts have been seen from the Shell explosion in Singapore.

The fire which came after the explosion at the Shell’s refinery in Singapore several days ago was only extinguished after 34 hours, which then forced Shell to close the refinery for examination. It remains unclear how much time it will take to recover for production, therefore, the supply from Singapore will surely be affected. 90 percent of the output from the refinery is for export.

After the explosion in Singapore, on October 1, the world witnessed another refinery explosion in Kuwait, the country with the fifth largest oil reserves in the world. – Vietnamnet

Tags: Vietnam petrol, Vietnam Petrol prices