Vietnam Refined Oil Imports Down 37% at US$4B in Jan-Aug

Vietnam spent US$4.005 billion on import of 8.759 million tons of petroleum products in the first eight months of this year, down 37% in value and 8.5% in volume from a year earlier.

 

In the first two weeks of August, the country bought 348,250 tons of the products valued at US$191.43 million, down 26.7% and 22.1%, respectively, compared with the first half of July.

 

Among the imported petroleum products, diesel topped the list with 171,720 tons worth US$95.57 million in the first half of August, down 9.2% and 6%, respectively from the first half of July.

 

The sharp drop in imports of petroleum products is attributed to the fact that Vietnam has operated its first oil refinery Dung Quat, which had produced 437,000 tons of petroleum products, including 39,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), 200,000 tons of gasoline A92, 38,000 tons of kerosene, 142,000 tons of diesel (DO) and 18,000 tons of fuel oil since its trial run began in April 2008, and as of August 15, 2009. (InfoTV)