Vietnam spends nearly 9 billion USD importing gasoline and oil in 2022

According to the General Department of Customs, the amount of imported petroleum in December 2022 was more than 944,000 tons, equivalent to 823 million USD. This level increased by over 22% in volume and nearly 11% in value compared to November.

In 2022, Vietnam spent nearly 9 billion USD to import approximately 8.9 million tons of various types of gasoline and oil, an increase of nearly 28% in volume and 118.5% (equivalent to nearly 4.9 billion USD) compared to 2021.

Diesel is the fuel with the largest imported output, about 4.74 million tons, accounting for 54% of the country's imported gasoline. Gasoline was imported by businesses about 1.7 million tons last year, an increase of 2.3 times compared to 2021. Meanwhile, imported jet fuel was 1.46 million tons, an increase of 2.2 times and accounting for 16% of imported gasoline.

South Korea remains the largest supplier of imported petroleum to Vietnam, with 3.22 million tons, up more than 96%. Followed by Singapore and Malaysia with output of nearly 1.5 million tons and 1.42 million tons, respectively.

The increase in petroleum imports continued in the first half of January this year, with 0.54 billion USD spent on fuel imports. This amount increased by 223 million USD, equivalent to more than 70% compared to the same period in 2022.

2022 is a year of fluctuations in the domestic petroleum market. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has given many reasons to explain the local shortage of fuel in the domestic market in the second and third quarters, including the fact that businesses have to import goods at high prices, sell them at low prices, and business costs have not been adjusted in time, causing them to incur losses. This has led to the situation where petroleum wholesalers have cut discounts (the amount deducted for distributors and retailers) and reduced sales volume.

Forecasting high demand for gasoline and oil to serve production and business, post-pandemic recovery, this year the Ministry of Industry and Trade assigned key enterprises to purchase and import 25.9-26.7 million m3 and tons of gasoline and oil, an increase of 10-15% compared to 2022. The Ministry said it will inspect and urge enterprises to strictly implement the assigned additional import plan, ensuring a continuous supply for the domestic market and preventing supply shortages.

However, in recent days, in some localities, the situation of gas stations closing or announcing "temporarily out of stock" has recurred during the Lunar New Year holiday.

Nghi Son Refinery suffered a technical problem since late December 2022, reducing domestic supply by about 120,000-200,000 m3, tons in January compared to the plan. The problem has been resolved, the plant has been operating normally since January 15 and is currently running at increased capacity to compensate for this shortage.

In addition to being affected by the above incident, many gasoline retailers said that not adjusting gasoline prices on the 30th of Tet but moving the price management cycle to February 1 while world oil prices are fluctuating sharply, causing the discount (commission) to be very low, even 0 VND, causing them to lose money in business.