Vietnam imports up with rising petrol demand

The Vietnam National Petroleum Corp. (Petrolimex) forecasts increased fuel imports in the next few months to meet rising domestic demand for petrol. Petrolimex expects to purchase a total of 4.32 million tons of petrol (including 3.37 million tons from abroad and 950,000 tons from the domestic refinery). Nguyen Quang Kien, deputy general director for Petrolimex, said rising demand for imports would cause demand for foreign currencies to rise as well. He also indicated that the forthcoming two-month maintenance shutdown of the Dung Quat Oil Refinery is going to add to local petrol shortage. Petrolimex is requesting assistance from the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance for measures to be put in place to help domestic fuel distributors. (June 1, 2011)