News Room - Business/Economics

Posted on 18 Apr 2008

PetroVietnam crude oil exports jump 49 percent

The state-run oil and gas group PetroVietnam, reported crude oil exports rose 49 percent as rising prices offset a drop in production.

Exports rose to US$2.76 billion from $1.85 billion in the same period a year earlier, Tran Quoc Viet, a vice head of the company’s planning department, said last week.

The oil group’s production fell 7 percent to 3.8 million metric tons in the first quarter from a year earlier, and exports fell 8 percent to 3.7 million tons.

Vietnam, which is Southeast Asia’s third largest oil producer with output averaging 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) is accelerating construction of refineries in a bid to reduce its reliance on oil product imports.

PetroVietnam has recently inked a $6 billion joint venture contract with Japanese refiner Idemitsu Kosan Co. and Kuwait Petroleum Internationalfor its second refinery with a daily capacity of 200,000 barrels in the central Thanh Hoa Province.

The country’s first refinery in the central Quang Ngai Province, the 140,000 bpd Dung Quat facility - wholly invested by PetroVietnam - is set to come online in 2009.