In the first quarter, Vietnam imported 1.9 million tons of crude oil, 3.2 times higher than exports. However, the export price of crude oil is slightly higher than the import price.

According to the General Department of Customs, in March, crude oil imports reached 977 thousand tons, equivalent to 695 million USD, up 3.6 times in volume and 4 times in value compared to February. Thus, oil imports March crude rose sharply after plunging in January and February.

In the first quarter, crude oil imports reached 1.9 million tons, equivalent to $1.2 billion, unchanged in volume but increasing by 50% in value over the same period in 2021.

In the opposite direction, in the first quarter, Vietnam’s crude oil exports reached 590 thousand tons, equivalent to 458 million USD, down 28% in volume but up 18% in value over the same period in 2021.

(Data:  General Department of Customs, Chart: Hoang Anh)

The price of imported crude oil in March reached 711 USD/ton, the highest level since the beginning of 2020 until now. In the first quarter, the average price of imported crude oil reached 683 USD/ton, 1.3 times higher than the crude oil price in 2021 and 2.1 times higher than the crude oil price in 2020.

In contrast, the price of crude oil for export in March reached 849 USD/ton, 1.7 times higher than in January 2021. Generally in the first quarter, the average export price of crude oil reached $757/ton, 1.3 times higher than the crude oil export price in 2021.

(Data:  General Department of Customs, Chart: Hoang Anh)

Thus, in the first quarter, Vietnam’s crude oil imports were nearly 3.2 times higher than the export volume. However, the export price of crude oil is slightly higher than the import price.

Sharing with VietNamNet newspaper, a petroleum expert said this is related to the type of crude oil.

Crude oil in the world has many different types and has different properties. Some oils produce a lot of gasoline, some crude oils produce a lot of D0, some can produce lubricants, but some cannot produce lubricants.

There are types that can produce asphalt, but there are types that cannot produce asphalt. In addition, there are crude oils containing many impurities, and there are crude oils with few impurities.

Conventional oil refineries are designed to process only certain types of crude oil, not all crude oils put into production, and not all crude oils put into production have optimal efficiency. .

Therefore, there is a type of crude oil produced by Vietnam that is not suitable for Dung Quat oil refinery, so it is forced to export to collect money, and buy suitable crude oil for processing. Of course, the Dung Quat petrochemical refinery was originally designed to consume crude oil extracted from the Bach Ho field.

However, in recent years, crude oil output from Bach Ho field has been decreasing and some fields have crude oil different from the technology designed for Dung Quat oil refining. Therefore, Vietnam has to sell those oils to import crude oils suitable for the design of this plant.

The important equipment of an oil refinery is the distillation tower. This distillation tower is designed according to the nature of the raw material. If another raw material (crude oil) is added, the distillation tower will not work or operate at low efficiency.

If they want to process other types of crude oil, refineries will have to invest in more technology and workshops to match.

In addition, another reason is that the crude oil lots exploited by Vietnam and Dung Quat Oil Refinery to buy must also participate in the bidding.

Because many PVN oil fields exploit again with the participation of foreign partners, while Dung Quat oil refinery is also a joint-stock company, not a 100% state-owned company, so it has to bid.

Therefore, if Dung Quat oil refinery pays a lower price than other units participating in the bidding, it will not be able to buy it, so it has to be imported from other sources to make up for it. In particular, there are times when buying from other sources is cheaper than bidding at domestic mines.

Thus, the fact that Vietnam both exports crude oil and imports pure crude oil is a technical and economic factor for smooth and efficient operation of oil refineries.

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