Vietnam’s petroleum imports up 61.3pct

Vietnam’s total petroleum imports in the first five months of this year were up to 5.142 million tones together with the rise of 41% in price, the total amount of money spending on petroleum imports has increased 61.3% year on year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) reported.

The ministry said although Dung Quat oil refinery was put into operation with full capacity, in the first five months of the year, the country’s fuel imports still increased. In recent years, domestic crude oil exports have offset for gasoline imports, even the country sometimes enjoyed a trade surplus, but this year the export has been lower than import.

In particular, export turnover of crude oil reached only $3 billion, while import of oil and gas was up to $4.6 billion, putting heavy pressures on the trade balance, especially in securing the foreign currency. In Jan-May, the country’s total import of oil and gas was up to 5.142 million tones, increasing 15.6% in volume. Together with the rise of 41% in price, the total amount of money spending on oil and gas import was up 61.3%.

Nguyen Quang Kien, deputy general director of Vietnam National Petroleum Corp (Petrolimex) also said averaging in Jan-May, oil and gas products increased 32-43% while crude oil price increased only 12%. The forecasts show from now till the end of the year, the oil and gas price will continue to increase. With the current retail price, the domestic oil and gas prices are still cheapest in the region, even about 8,000 dong per liter lower than the price in Lao and over 6,000 dong per liter lower than the price in Cambodia. – Vietbiz24

Posted by VBN on May 31 2011. Filed under Import-Export, 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