Vietnam Aug oil product imports surge 71% from Jul on turnarounds

Vietnam’s imports of oil products in August surged 71% month on month to 872,000 mt, according to statistics released Tuesday by Vietnam Customs.

But August import volumes were up only 1% compared with the year-ago period.

The value of oil product imports in August was $829 million, up 69% from July and up 51% year on year, the data showed.

The surge in the volume of oil product imports in August compared with July was mainly due to the impending shutdown of two major gas pipelines and a turnaround at Vietnam’s sole refinery at Dung Quat, an official at the country’s top oil importer, Petrolimex, said Tuesday.

Vietnam’s state-owned PetroVietnam Gas plans to shut the 21 million cu m/d Nam Con Son pipeline over September 15-24 and the 2 billion cu m/year PM3 gas pipeline over October 1-14 for maintenance, Platts reported earlier citing the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The ministry said then that the shutdowns will result in the company having to run the Nhon Trach and Phu My power plants, which have a combined capacity of 3,000 MW, on diesel.

In addition, the country has had to import an addition 1 million mt of oil products during the shutdown of state-owned PetroVietnam’s 6.5 million mt/year (130,000 b/d) Dung Quat refinery over mid-July to mid-September, Nguyen Hoai Giang, general director of Dung Quat’s operator Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Company, was quoted as saying in a local media report in June.

In August, Vietnam’s main suppliers of oil products were Singapore (350,000 mt or a 40% share), China (122,000 mt or 14%) and Kuwait (100,000 mt or 11%).

In the first eight months, Vietnam imported 7.4 million mt of oil products, up 3.4% compared with the same period in 2010. The value of imports during the period was $6.7 billion, up 51% year on year.

In the first eight months, Vietnam’s main suppliers were Singapore (3.2 million mt or 43%), Taiwan (1.1 million mt or 15%) and China (813,000 mt or 11%).

But the Petrolimex official said that the country’s oil demand is not expected to see significant growth throughout the rest of the year due to a cut in public investment and uncertain economic growth.

Petrolimex said in a document in July that the country’s oil demand was forecast to grow 7-7.5% annually over 2011-2015. AUGUST CRUDE EXPORTS DOWN 2% FROM JULY, UP 59% ON YEAR

Meanwhile, Vietnam exported 911,000 mt of crude oil in August, down 2% from July but up 59% year on year. The crude export value was $813 million in August, down 4% from July but up sharply from $342 million a year ago.

The main destinations for Vietnam’s crude oil in August were Australia (326,000 mt or 36%), Japan (157,000 mt or 17%) and Malaysia (138,000 mt or 15%).

In the first 8 months of this year, Vietnam exported 5.7 million mt of crude oil, up 4.8% compared with the same period last year. The value of exports was $5 billion, up 53% year on year.

So far this year, Vietnam has mainly exported its crude oil to Australia (1.2 million mt or 21%), Japan (961,000 mt or 17%) and South Korea (871,000 mt or 15%).

The country did not import any crude oil in August as its sole refinery was shut.

VIETNAM REVIEWS DOMESTIC OIL MARKET

Separately, Vietnam is in the process of reviewing its management of the domestic oil market. The Ministry of Finance on Friday ordered local oil importers to submit reports on their oil product imports over January 1 to September 12 this year. The reports, which must be submitted before Tuesday, will serve as a basis for the ministry to review its management of the domestic oil market and initiate possible changes, the ministry said.

Earlier this month, the ministry requested Vietnam’s trade offices in China, Laos and Cambodia to collect information about oil prices in the respective countries to help it manage local prices and set up a database on which to base domestic price policy proposals in future.

Tags: Vietnam oil and gas industry, Vietnam oil imports