| HANOI, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is estimated to see a year-on-year surge of 53.3 percent in crude oil export value, despite a10.8-percent decrease in export volume, in the first eight months of this year.
Between January and August, Vietnam is set to export nearly 9 million tons of crude oil worth roughly 7.9 billion U.S. dollars, mainly to China, Singapore, Japan and the United States, according to the country's General Statistics Office on Monday.
The Vietnamese government has recently asked state-owned Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) to exploit 16.2-16.3 million tons of crude oil this year, instead of 16 million tons in the initial plan.
Vietnam is estimated to import 9.6 million tons of petroleum products totaling 9.1 billion dollars in the first eight months of this year, up 13.7 percent and 94.3 percent, respectively, the statistics office said.
Despite being Southeast Asia's third largest crude oil exporter, Vietnam still relies entirely on petroleum product imports as it lacks its own refineries.
Dung Quat, Vietnam's first refinery with an annual processing capacity of 6.5 million tons of crude oil under construction with investment of 2.5 billion dollars in central Quang Ngai province, is scheduled to operate in February 2009. Its sole investor is PetroVietnam. |
