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PetroVietnam earnings hit $7.2b amid price flux
PetroVietnam Group earned VND151.2 trillion (US$7.2 billion) in the first quarter of this year, despite challenges caused by fluctuating oil prices, the national petroleum group announced on Apr. 6.
"This figure is a year-on-year increase of 59.4 per cent, representing 30.2 per cent of our annual target," said Deputy Director General Le Minh Hong.
PetroVietnam has already sold $2.7 billion to domestic banks in line with a Government request to free up foreign currency, and the group is expected to pay about VND36.5 trillion ($1.74 billion) in taxes for Q1, a year-on-year increase of 35 per cent.
"PetroVietnam produced 6.02 million tonnes of oil including 3.68 million tonnes of crude oil in Q1," said Hong, adding that the group had sold 3.65 million tonnes of the crude oil.
Of this number, he added, 1.96 million tonnes were for export, 1.56 million tonnes went to the Dung Quat Refinery and 131,000 tonnes were both exploited and sold in foreign countries.
"The group also produced 2.33 billion cu.m of gas, and 218,400 tonnes of urea fertiliser," Hong said.
During the first quarter, PetroVietnam started work on eight new projects and inaugurated 14.
However, work was put on hold at 19 projects with a total investment capital of VND582 billion ($27.7 million), but processing time was extended at 45 others, worth VND6 trillion ($285.7 million).
"These decisions were taken following the Government's direction on inspecting projects and investment," said PetroVietnam General Director Phung Dinh Thuc.
Thuc affirmed that these projects had been carefully examined.
"We have checked a large number of projects and postponed and extended where we can. Urgent and on-going projects will not be on the list," Thuc said, affirming that the moves would not affect any power projects.
He also added that the inspections would continue in the future.
In the second quarter, PetroVietnam expects to reach a revenue of VND152.12 trillion ($7.25 billion).
Dung Quat Refinery
In another development, PetroVietnam on Apr. 6 reported that its Dung Quat Refinery produced 1.37 million tonnes of petrol and oil in Q1.
PetroVietnam also announced that after halting operations for three weeks so inspections could take place, work had officially resumed at the refinery.
"The refinery resumed at 100 per cent capacity yesterday," said the general director of the Binh Son Oil Refinery and Petrochemical Company Ltd, Nguyen Hoai Giang.
Giang explained that they had needed to check all the equipment at the refinery ahead of the first maintenance overhaul from mid- July to mid - September 2011.
"The overhaul has been planned for a long time so we wanted to find out what equipment needs to be replaced. It can take from two to six months for new equipment to arrive," Giang said.
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