Vietnam’s crude oil output in April is estimated to increase 1.2 per cent on month and 0.88 per cent on year to 10.88 million barrels, or 362,590 barrels a day, the Government’s General Statistics Office (GSO) said.
Vietnam, the sixth largest Asian crude oil producer, is forecast to exploit 42.49 million barrels of crude oil between January and April of this year, or 354,100 bpd, down 3.4 per cent on year, including 10.74 million barrels in March, it said.
The slight fall in output in the four-month period is principally due to shrinking exploitations in several oil fields in the country, an anonymous official from the Ministry of Industry said, but declined to comment on the reason for the rise in April exploitations or to name falling oil fields.
The GSO said Tuesday that Vietnam is projected to bring ashore 600 million cubic meters of natural gas in April, down 4 per cent on year, totaling 2.27 billion cubic meters in the January-April period, up 0.6 per cent.
The Southeast Asian nation extracted 31,400 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in April, up 5 per cent on year, and 122,100 tons in the entire four month period, up 2.8 per cent year on year.
Without major refineries, all refined oil products sold in Vietnam are imported. The country is forecast to spend US$1.81 billion on importing 3.53 million tons of refined oil in the four months.
Meanwhile, the communist-ruled nation is anticipated to export 39.92 million barrels of crude oil valued at nearly US$2.63 billion, down 8.9 per cent in volume but up 15.6 per cent in value, said the GSO.
Vietnam expects its first refineries to be operational in 2009.
GSO
Vietnamese
