Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien has signed a decision to establish special inspection teams tasked with checking the compliance with regulations on fuel trading among wholesale firms.

As many as 33 fuel wholesale firms will face inspections, according to the inspectors of the ministry.

The local fuel market now has a total of 36 wholesale firms, including Petrolimex, PVOil and Military Petroleum Corporation, the local media reported.

The inspectors from the ministry also wrote to the Domestic Markets Department under the ministry asking it to provide relevant documents, such as business licenses and business certificates, to facilitate the inspection.

The inspection is aimed at reorganizing and strengthening the fuel market, according to the ministry.

During the inspection period, wholesale fuel firms and distributors will have their licenses re-checked and reviewed to promptly detect violations and prevent substandard fuel trading, as over the past few years licensing fuel traders has been rampant.

In related news, HCMC seems to face a potential shortage of gasoline, as many gas stations in the city are offering each customer a volume of petrol worth VND30,000, meaning that each buyer is only able to purchase over one liter of gasoline. Meanwhile, others disagreed to refill cans brought with residents.

Also, many wholesale firms have sold a limited volume of fuel to retailers.

The owner of a filling station in the city told Tuoi Tre Online that the gas station only sold each customer VND30,000 of gasoline, as the station did not want to order more fuel due to losses. She said that though fuel wholesalers still provide retailers with gasoline, they receive a zero-percent discount.

Source: SGT

Rising oil and gas prices would put brake on economy: expert

The rising global oil and gas prices will affect domestic production as oil and gas cost makes up around 3.52 percent of the economy's total production costs, thus pushing up product prices.