Crowds of people queuing outside a gas station in Dong Nai province. (Photo: VNA) Hai made the comment at the ministry’s regular meeting on October12 afternoon, noting that since the end of 2021, the global situation hasstrongly affected the fuel supply. Local traders have made efforts to ensureenough fuel supply for domestic demand.
Under Decree 95/2021/ND-CP amending and supplementing Decree83/2014/ND-CP on petrol and oil trading, petrol traders can import fuel or buydirectly from domestic oil refineries.
Nghi Son, the biggest oil refinery of Vietnam, has cut outputsince mid-January because of a lack of funds needed to import crude oil,triggering a local gasoline and diesel shortage. Therefore, the ministry hasrequired 10 key petrol trading companies to increase their import to make upfor the domestic shortage. At that time, petrol traders had to import petrol atvery high prices, then the price continuously decreased leading to losses.
Hai stated that the important issue was supply. The supply fromdomestic oil refineries accounted for 70-805 and the remainder came fromimports posing great difficulties for Vietnam importers.
To help remove difficulties for petrol trading enterprises, thetwo ministries of Trade and Industry and Finance agreed to increase the cost forfuel transport from local refineries.
Hai noted that fuel transport cost from abroad remained a problem.Therefore, his ministry would ask the Government to continue to adjust the costin order to share the burden with petrol trading companies.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has said that Vietnam’s fuelsupply system is still being reserved to ensure sufficient supply for localdemand.
Accordingly, Petrolimex keeps a reserve of 489,000 cu.m. PVOILholds a reserve of 230,000 cu.m. They are followed by military-run PetroleumCompany with 19,000 cu.m, Saigon Petro (11,000 cu.m), Petimex Dong Thap (45,000cu.m) and Thanh Le (60,000 cu.m).
The ministry said petroleum trading companies committed tocontinuously importing more fuel to ensure sufficient supply for theirdistribution network.
Previously, the MoIT’s Domestic Market Department said in recentdays, there has been a phenomenon that some petrol retailers have asked the departmentto temporarily suspend business in some provinces and cities such as HCM City,An Giang, Binh Phuoc, and Dak Lak provinces. More than 100 petrol stations outof total of 17,000 were temporarily closed.
This phenomenon is attributed to the rising expenses in petroleumbusinesses since late 2021. As a result, petroleum traders do not have enoughfunds to import petrol. They have to maintain sufficient quantity for theirretailers and inventories only.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry has instructed fuel wholesalersand distributors to work together to enhance fuel supply in some localitiesfacing a shortage of petrol.
In addition, the ministry has also required market watch teamsnationwide to closely work with authorised bodies to conduct inspections andcontrol retail activities and strictly handle violations.
Despite fuel shortages at some petrol stations under themanagement of key petroleum traders, inventories are sufficient to meet localdemand while petrol traders will continue importing fuel, according to theTrade Ministry.
Petrol prices up in latest adjustmentRetail prices of oil andpetrol increased starting from 3pm on October 11, following the latestadjustment by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Ministry of Finance.
Accordingly, the ceiling retail price of E5 RON92 rose by 560 VND(0.02 USD) to 21,290 VND per litre, and that of RON95 bio-fuel went up 560 VNDto 22,000 VND per litre.
The prices of oil products were also revised up, with that ofdiesel oil up by 1,960 VND to 24,160 VND per litre, and that of kerosene up by 1,140VND to 22,820 VND per litre. Mazut oil’s price was kept unchanged, at 14,909 VNDper kg.
The two ministries also determined to extract 200-400 VND perlitre from petrol prices for the petrol price stabilisation fund./.
VNA
