Oil Import Value Jumps by Nearly Half in January
Vietnam is estimated to pump US$440 million into importing 950,000 metric tons of petroleum products in the first month of 2006, up 48.7 per cent in value and 1.8 per cent in volume on the same month last year, according to the government’s statistics agency.
“The soaring expenditure on petroleum products resulted from high global oil prices,” an official from the Ministry of Trade said.
The figures are also up 6 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively from last month when the Southeast Asian nation paid US$415 million for the import of 900,000 tons of such fuels, the agency also reported.
In 2005, Vietnam spent nearly US$5 billion to import 11.3 million tons of refined oil products, up 39 per cent in value and 2.6 per cent in volume.
In spite of being the sixth-largest crude oil producer in Asia, Vietnam has to import most of refined oil products to feed its national energy demand because it lacks major refining facilities.
The country plans to import 13 million tons of petroleum this year, up 8.4 per cent from last year.
GSO
Vietnamese
