MOF on December 14 sent a document to the Government Office reporting a petroleum storage.

Regarding MOIT’s proposal on passing the task of petroleum reserve management to MOF in 2024-2025, MOF has shown its disagreement.

Citing the Law on National Reserve and related decrees, MOF said MOIT is assigned by the Government to manage the national reserve of petroleum products, while MOF is responsible for controlling national reserves of essential goods.

In Vietnam, petroleum products are reserved for businesses and the national reserve.

Petroleum is listed as special goods, flammable, explosive and toxic, and therefore, petroleum trading is a conditional business field. The storage of petroleum products, preservation, transport, trade and import/export must comply with strict technical requirements. Petroleum storage tanks, pipelines and other facilities must be specialized, while transport must be done with specific vehicles.

This means that the state agency in charge of managing national petroleum reserve must be capable and professional, and implement state management over this kind of product.

In principle, MOIT is the watchdog agency in charge of implementing state management in industries and trade, including the fields of electricity, coal, oil and gas and energy, according to Decree 96/2022 dated November 29, 2022.

Therefore, it is reasonable for the government to assign MOIT to take the state management over petroleum reserves, because this suits MOIT’s capability, real conditions, and apparatus.

If MOIT insists on shifting the petroleum reserve control to MOF, it needs to clarify the legal foundation, the advantages and disadvantages, solutions and roadmap. The issues will be submitted to competent agencies for consideration.

Mentioning th difficulties in the preservation of national reserve petroleum products in Document No13833 dated December 14, 2023 to MOIT, MOF points out that since the Law on National Reserve took effect on July 1, 2013, MOIT has been preserving petroleum products for reserve together with petroleum products for trade under contracts signed with four enterprises.

Meanwhile, under current regulations, reserved petroleum products must be preserved separately.

In reply, MOIT explained that the separate preservation of national petroleum reserves still cannot be implemented because the preservation cost is unreasonable.

But MOF argued that under Circular 108, MOIT is responsible for drafting a regulation on petroleum products for national reserve and should consult with relevant ministries. Meanwhile, MOF has not received such a document. 

Luong Bang