Vietnam's oil product imports in February rose for a third consecutive month, on a year-on-year basis, following declines for most of last year, customs data released late Thursday showed.
The country imported 602,827 mt of oil products in February, up 23.8% from a year ago, but down by the same level compared with January this year, according to Vietnam Customs data.
Of the February total, Vietnam imported 117,390 mt of gasoline, down 6% year on year; 305,400 mt of diesel, up 60% year on year; and 61,003 mt of fuel oil, down 13.4% year on year. The balance is made up of small import volumes of jet fuel and kerosene.
The uptick in the country's oil product imports over December 2013-February 2014 comes just months before a planned maintenance shutdown at the 130,000 b/d Dung Quat refinery over May-July.
PetroVietnam in January said that it aims to produce 4.6 million mt of oil products in 2014, down 30% from 2013, largely due to the turnaround at the refinery.
The value of oil product imports in February was $561 million, up 17.3% from February 2013, but down 24% compared with January this year.
Vietnam's leading oil product suppliers in February included Singapore (187,611 mt or 31.1% of the total), Taiwan (172,283 mt or 28.5% of total) and China (164,305 mt or 27.5% of total).
Over January-February, the country imported 1.38 million mt of oil products, rising 41.5% from a year ago. The import value of the oil products for that period was $1.28 billion, up 34.1% compared with the same period last year.
Most of Vietnam's oil product imports in the first two months of this year was from Singapore (447,495 mt or 32.4% of the total), Taiwan (325,547 mt or 23.6% of total) and China (245,597 mt or 17.8% of total).
In the first two months of this year, state-owned PetroVietnam, the sole producer of oil products in the country, produced 1.04 million mt of oil products, the company said earlier this month, without providing a year-on-year comparison. VIETNAM'S FEB CRUDE OIL EXPORTS JUMP 28% ON YEAR
Vietnam exported 661,645 mt of crude oil in February, 27.6% higher than the same month last year and up 18.2% from January this year.
The export value of the crude in February stood at $600 million, up 23.4% year on year and 19% higher than January this year.
In February, Vietnam mainly exported its crude to Japan (226,305 mt or 34.2% of the total), Australia (163,119 mt or 24.6% of total) and Malaysia (123,927 mt or 18.7% of total).
Over January-February, however, the country exported 1.18 million mt of crude, down 11.2% from the same period last year. The export value for the period was at $1 billion, down 12.8% year on year.
The fall in Vietnam's crude oil exports in the first two months of this year was because the country did not import any crude for its Dung Quat refinery in January and February, according to the data.
Part of Vietnam's crude oil output is consumed by the refinery in the central province of Quang Ngai, while the rest is exported.
Main customers of Vietnamese crude in the first two months of this year included Japan (388,109 mt or 32.9% of the total), Australia (294,990 mt or 25% of total) and Malaysia (203,540 mt or 17.2% of total).
