As of 3 pm on Tuesday, the retail price of RON95 bio-fuel per liter was raised by VND498 (US$0.021) to a record-high of VND32,873 ($1.41). The cost of E5 RON92 petrol jumped by VND185 ($0.008), and that of diesel oil went up by VND999 ($0.043).
This is the 12th time this year and the third this month that petroleum prices in Vietnam have been adjusted. Since May this year, the prices of RON95 went up by VND5,560 per liter and E5-RON92 by VND4,830.
RON95 is unleaded high-octane mineral gasoline, that burns more efficiently for higher-performance car/motorbike engines that require it. And it currently makes up 70% of the total amount of consumed petroleum products in the domestic market.
The move to implement a price hike was triggered by the latest 10-day review on petrol prices jointly conducted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Tuesday.
Accordingly, the price of kerosene was posted at VND28,780 ($1.24) per liter, up nearly VND950; diesel at VND30,010 ($1.29), or an increase of VND990; and the price of mazut went up by VND380 to VND20,730 ($0.89) per kilogram.
Over the last ten days, the price of kerosene jumped by an average of 4% to $169.25 per barrel; diesel by 3.6% to $172.56, while those of petroleum products went down slightly by 0.21-0.95%.
With limited supplies due to the Western’s ongoing sanctions against Russian oil and high demand from countries around the world, the ministries of Industry and Trade and Finance warn that the prices of petrol on the global market will continue their upward trends during the interval of the two price adjustments.
Because of this, the two ministries decided to subsidize prices of diesel and kerosene with VND400 and VND300 per liter, respectively, from the petrol price stabilization fund to help curb the rising prices of petrol and oil products.
Additionally, the MoIT has recommended increasing Vietnam’s fuel reserve by four times as much, according to a report from Vietnam News. Le Viet Nga, deputy head of the ministry's domestic market department, told the local media that the country’s entire reserve could only meet domestic demand for five to seven days.
Vietnam has not yet been forced to tap into its national reserve even with the rising global prices and more robust demand. The country's reserves consisted of trader reserves, refineries, and national reserves.
To further ease the impact of the price hikes as well as to control inflation, the MoF also proposed cutting environmental protection tax rates for petrol, oil, and grease.
Vietnam primarily uses two types of gasoline – RON95 and E5RON92, a mix of RON 92 (lower-grade mineral gasoline used for ordinary gasoline engines) petrol (95%) and E5, a more environmentally friendly option bio-fuel ethanol (5%).