Oil tanks of Petrovietnam. Photo: VNA According to a report from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam’snational petroleum reserve was quite low, around 300,000 cubic metres per year,equivalent to only nine days of net import and seven days of consumption, lowerthan the demand.
The ministry proposed the national petroleum reserve be raised from nine daysof net import to 15 days and 30 days in the 2026-30 period.
Accordingly, it was estimated that Vietnam would need around 4.1 trillion VND (173.7million USD) per year to increase the national petroleum reserve.
Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien said that the biggest obstaclewas finding funds for the increase.
The storage must be enough for around 4-6 months of consumption to be able tocope with unusual situations in the global markets and avoid supplydisruptions.
The Ministry of Finance, however, said that the sum was beyond the ability ofthe State budget. Currently, the State budget could arrange around 1.5 trillionVND per year for the national total reserves, meaning that it only met a thirdof the needed amount.
Dien said that each year, the State should arrange an additional sum of around 1-2trillion VND, equivalent to 1-2 days of net import to increase the nationalpetroleum reserve to 15 days of net import to 2025.
The ministry’s statistics showed that last year the total petroleum supply wasnearly 25.58 million cubic metres, including 8.87 million cubic metres fromimports, and 15.69 million cubic metres from local refineries.
In 2023, the ministry asked that the total petroleum supply should be 27.34million cubic metres, 15% higher than last year, in which imports would stillaccount for a large proportion.
Despite being a strategic product that plays an important role in ensuringenergy security, the low reserve is one of the problems affecting fuel supplywhen unusual situations occur.
2022 was a difficult year for the global petrol and oil market due to theRussia – Ukraine conflict which caused disruptions and supply scarcity, pushingup prices and causing risks to enterprises.
Another problem is the shortage of infrastructure for the storage of petroleum.Currently, petroleum from the national reserve is being stored at more than 20sites of major petrol wholesalers, triggering concerns that it would lead to alack of transparency.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade admitted that it was difficult to separatethe national petroleum reserve from the reserve of enterprises because theState did not have the infrastructure for petroleum reserves and must rent fromenterprises.
The lack of infrastructure for petroleum reserves must be tackled in the longterm, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said. However, in the short-term,renting storage units of enterprises must continue to avoid disruption and thereshould be mechanisms to increase transparency./.
VNA
