Hanoi — Vietnam hiked imports of crude oil in January and raised exports for the first time in more than a year, preliminary data released Monday by Vietnam Customs showed. Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience. The country imported 910,633 mt (215,321 b/d) of crude oil in January, up from none a year earlier and up 31.2% from December, the preliminary data showed. The value of the imports totaled $390 million in January, up 19.1% from December. Vietnam imported 5.17 million mt of crude oil in 2018, up 4.4 times from 1.18 million mt in 2017. Vietnam Customs did not provide a breakdown of supply sources by country. The rise in imports in January came after the 200,000 b/d refinery at Nghi Son began commercial operations on November 14 last year. Crude for Nghi Son is shipped from Kuwait. State-owned PetroVietnam has a 25.1% stake in the refinery, Kuwait Petroleum International 35.1%, Japan's Idemitsu Kosan 35.1% and Japan's Mitsui Chemicals 4.7%. Meanwhile, Vietnam exported 486,712 mt of crude oil in January, surging 27.8% year on year and up 39% from December, the data showed. Russian-Vietnamese joint venture VietsovPetro in January produced first oil from the Ca Tam offshore oilfield in southern Vietnam. Initial production from the field in block 09-3/12 was 1,630 mt/day and this could more than double at its peak, S&P Global Platts reported earlier. The value of the exports in January was $226 million, up 10.2% on year, with Thailand and China the major buyers in the month. Vietnam exported 3.96 million mt of crude oil in 2018, down 41.9% on year, mostly to China, Thailand and Australia. Part of Vietnam's crude output is routed to its 130,000 b/d refinery at Dung Quat and the rest exported. --Newsdesk-Vietnam, newsdesk@spglobal.com --Edited by Wendy Wells, wendy.wells@spglobal.com
Vietnam imported 910,633 metric tonnes (mt) of crude oil in January, a MoM increase of 31.2%, while exports grew 39% MoM to 486,712 mt. The country is also the world's largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), accounting for more than half of all imports from Asia. Increased exports, valued at $226m, came partially from Russia-Vietnam joint venture VietsovPetro, which produced its first oil from the southern Vietnamese Ca Tam offshore oilfield. For 2018, the country exported 3.96 million mt, a 41.9% YoY decrease, with the majority of supplies going to China, Thailand and Australia.