|
Gasoline prices cut as oil slips
The Hanoi-based Vietnam National Petroleum, or Petrolimex, which supplies 70 percent of the country’s retail gasoline, has cut prices for the third time since August in response to falling global prices.
It cut the prices of 92-octane gasoline, the most commonly used grade in the country, and 95-octane gasoline by VND500 a liter to VND16,500 and VND17,000 respectively.
The reduction, effective from today, “is in response to the government’s call to retailers to reduce local fuel costs amid the recent drop in world oil prices,” Vuong Thai Dung, Petrolimex deputy chief executive officer told Bloomberg Tuesday.
Crude oil has tumbled almost 38 percent from its July 11 record of US$147.27 a barrel amid a deepening global credit crisis.
But Petrolimex left diesel prices unchanged. Last month, the cost of diesel type 0.25S and 0.05S fell by VND450 per liter to VND15,450 and VND15,500.
But oil companies are sitting on cumulative losses of VND3 trillion ($180.7 million) caused by the government’s efforts to combat inflation by cutting gasoline prices. In an effort to improve their liquidity, the Ministry of Finance announced Monday it would lend the oil companies money.
A month after getting the loans, they can start repaying by drawing VND1,000 per liter from pretax profits, the ministry said.
In August, the government had slashed retail prices by VND2,000 within a span of two weeks.
Vietnam is Asia’s second-largest importer of petrol and diesel after Indonesia. The country, while exporting crude oil, has to import refined oil products because it lacks refineries.
The $2.5 billion Dung Quat refinery, its first, is scheduled to begin operations in February next year with an annual capacity of 6.5 million tons.
Thanhnien
|
