Rising petrol and oil import causes high trade deficit

The country spent US$976 million to import one million tonnes of refined petrol and oil in August, nearly double both the import volume and value of the previous month, the General Statistics Office reported.

The country’s crude oil export volume and value during the period decreased by $14 million last month to $165 million, leaving a trade deficit of more than $810 million for the month.

The August figures brought the first eight months of the year’s total petrol and oil import volume to 7.55 million tonnes worth nearly $6.89 billion, up 5.7 per cent in volume and 55 per cent in value against the same period last year.

As crude oil exports in the January-August period reached only 1.46 million tonnes totalling $1.34 billion, up 25 per cent in volume and 74.6 per cent in value, petrol and oil imports contributed $5.55 billion to the country’s trade deficit in the first eight months of the year, the office reported.

Experts said that though the country had been able to reduce imports of refined petrol and oil since 2009 when Dung Quat, the country’s first oil refinery, was put into operation, it still suffered a high trade deficit in the sector due to rising demand in the domestic market and a reduction in crude oil output. Last year’s crude oil exploitation output was 15 million tonnes against 18.8 million tonnes in 2005.

Dung Quat has provided the domestic market with 3.3 million tonnes of refined products since its opening. – VNS

Tags: Vietnam oil and gas industry

Posted by VBN on Aug 30 2011. Filed under Oil-Gas & Petroleum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry