At a regular press conference on June 16, Nguyen Thuy Hien, Deputy Director of the Planning Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), said that the ministry has drawn up a plan on increasing petroleum reserves to one month. The plan will be implemented from now to 2025. 

MOIT is collecting opinions from the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) on the plan.

“As the state’s resources are limited at this moment, the increase in national petroleum reserves will be implemented in accordance with a roadmap from now to 2025. In the immediate time, as there are not enough warehouses, the State will continue to rent enterprises’ warehouses. However, in long term, the State will build warehouses of its own,” Hien said. 

Under current regulations, Vietnam’s petroleum reserves are from three sources, including commercial reserves as key petroleum trading companies (20 days) and distribution businessmen (5 days); reserves at the two oil refineries; and national reserves. 

At present, national reserves are small, which are equal to 5-7-day use, not enough to ensure energy security.

According to MOIT, national petroleum reserves are kept at enterprises’ warehouses the State rents. The enterprises committed to ensure supply at any time. However, since the day the regulation on national reserves was issued, Vietnam still has not used petroleum from this source.

“In principle, the first priority source for use is commercial reserves of enterprises, followed by the reserves of oil refineries, while national reserves are the last choice,” she explained.

“Vietnam still is not using the national reserves despite the tense situation. However, as the current reserves are thin, it is necessary to increase the reserves,” she said.

If national reserves are used to ensure supply, will this help curb the petroleum price increases? Hien said the current regulation on using national petroleum reserves doesn’t mention price stabilization. However, the matter will be mentioned in the new regulation.

In related news, at the press conference, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Do Thang Hai reported that Vietnam gained encouraging results in May and the first five months of the year in all three fields – industry, export and domestic market.

In the first five months, the index of industrial production (IIP) increased by 8.3 percent over the same period last year. The export turnover increased by 16.7 percent.

Luong Bang