PetroVietnam to Pump Up Crude Oil Volume

PetroVietnam to Pump Up Crude Oil Volume 

The Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation (PetroVietnam) has revised its crude oil export target this year to 19.5 million tons, 1.5 million tons higher than its initial target, as oil prices continue to rise sharply in the first quarter of the year.

The state oil and gas giant PetroVietnam estimated oil export earnings this year would probably reach US$5.5 billion instead of US$4.1 billion in initial forecasts if oil prices continue to hover above US$50 per barrel in coming months.

Quarterly earnings from oil exports hit US$1.6 billion in the first quarter this year, a 30.3 per cent increase year-on-year.

Whereas the volume of oil exports reached 4.5 million tons, about 10 per cent lower than the same time last year.

Oil sales were backed by higher crude oil prices that rose 48.2 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LPG) production capacity in the first quarter fell 0.5 per cent and 6.6 per cent respectively compared with the same quarter last year, PetroVietnam reported.

Natural gas production in the first three months reached 1.6 billion cubic meters while LPG volume was 84,800 tons.

PetroVietnam plans to pump 6 billion cubic meters of natural gas and produce 350,000 tons of LPG this year.

PetroVietnam predicted oil prices would stay at the US$50 per barrel mark over the next months due to rising demands on the world oil market, especially in Asia.

Vietnam is the third largest oil producer in Asia, with an average production capacity of 403,300 barrels per day in 2004 and has therefore benefited from a rise in oil prices.

On the flipside, as the country does not have any oil refineries yet, it still has to import petroleum products.

In the first quarter of this year, the country spent US$908 million to import 2.8 million tons of petroleum products.

It is estimated Vietnam will import 12.4 million tons of petroleum this year at cost of about US$3.6 billion; therefore, net income from oil should be approximately US$1.9 billion.

The US$1.5-billion Dung Quat refinery in the central province of Quang Ngai has yet to be installed after the project was launched more than five years ago.

A second refinery in north central Thanh Hoa, capitalized at about US$2.5 billion, is still on the drawing board as the Government considers a feasibility study.

• VIR