Petrol stations start to run dry

Ensuring stable domestic market supplies is now a prime concern of local petroleum firms.

Deputy general director of Petrolimex Vuong Thai Dung said petroleum firms were under pressure to ensure supplies of petroleum for the domestic market.

He said the major cause was associated with firms’ difficulties in both buying US dollars and accessing US dollar loans.

“Banks have done their utmost in selling us the greenbacks under prime ministerial instructions. However, what they could give us is short of our expectations,” said Dung.

Each year, Petrolimex needs around $6 billion for importing petroleum products, at an average of $500 million per month.

“Procuring sufficient greenbacks to pay back bank loans is another headache to petroleum firms currently,” Dung asserted.

Military Petroleum Corporation director Cao Van Han said buying the greenbacks from banks was perplexing.

“In addition, since China increased buying petroleum products from Singapore, sourcing these products in the world marketplace amid rising world’s petroleum prices has become arduous,” Han said.

Local media recently made public the fact that some filling stations were found out of order in several locations. Industry experts said petroleum businesses were incurring big losses and low commissions made many filling stations stop selling the products.

Singapore-based petrol prices averaged $106 per barrel and oil price fetched $114 per barrel in the past 30 days.

The Vietnam Petroleum Price Stabilisation Fund claimed its petroleum reserves had run out. The country’s current import tariffs on petrol and oil products stand at zero and 2 per cent, respectively. If global petroleum price hike continues, local petroleum businesses will be put under bigger pressures.

The possibility for state authorities to upwardly revise petroleum prices is forecast to soon happen. – VIR

Tags: Vietnam petrol, Vietnam Petrol prices