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Vietnam oil products demand to rise 8 percent a year
Technicians practice using new equipment at the under-construction Dung Quat oil refinery in central Vietnam. The country aims to be self-sufficient in oil products by 2015 when three key refineries are completed.
Vietnam expects its annual consumption of petroleum products to rise between 8 and 10 percent in the next two years, a government report said Thursday.
“Because of the very rapid increase in demand, oil and gas exploration must be stepped up, including oil searches in oil-rich areas overseas,” the report quoted the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which is responsible for the sector, as saying. It didn’t give figures for expected volume.
The report, part of a draft development plan for Vietnam’s energy sector, highlighted energy-related environmental issues and national energy security in the period until 2025.
It also quoted Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai as saying concerned authorities should help to develop PetroVietnam, the national oil group, into an international oil major to meet domestic fuel demand.
Despite being Southeast Asia’s third largest crude oil producer of 320,000 barrels per day (bpd), Vietnam relies almost entirely on oil product imports as it lacks major refineries.
Imports of petroleum products rose 14 percent by volume and 94 percent by value to US$9.12 billion in the first eight months, according to General Statistics Office in Hanoi.
Vietnam’s first refinery, the 140,000-bpd Dung Quat plant in Quang Ngai Province, is expected to come onstream next February, meeting about 40 percent of the country’s total demand for refined products.
Vietnam aims to be self-sufficient in oil products by 2015 when three key refineries are completed.
PetroVietnam said in July crude oil export revenues reached $5.7 billion in the first half of this year. It plans to exploit 16 million tons of crude this year.
Thanhnien
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