Quoc Trung
On March 31, 2023, a delegation of the Steering Committee for Project “Assessing the implementation of the Politburo’s Resolution 41-NQ/TW dated July 23, 2015 orientating the strategic development of Vietnam’s oil and gas industry by 2025, with a vision to 2035” (Resolution 41-NQ/TW) led by Politburo member – Head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Tran Tuan Anh had a working session with Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex/Group).
The delegation included representatives of the Steering Committee, the Project building team, and some units of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission.
Hosting a reception for the delegation were Central Enterprises Bloc’s Party Standing Committee member, Secretary of Petrolimex’s Party Committee – Chairman Pham Van Thanh; Deputy Secretary of Petrolimex’s Party Committee, Board of Management member, General Director Dao Hai Nam; members of the Petrolimex’s Party Standing Committee, Board of Management and Board of Directors; head of the Supervisory Board; heads of the Group divisions/departments; and chairpersons/general directors of the Group’s corporations and member companies.
Delivering an opening remark, Anh said over the past years the Party and State have always attached importance to the oil and gas industry. The Resolution 41-NQ/TW orientating the strategic development of Vietnam’s oil and gas industry by 2025, with a vision to 2035 was promulgated by the Politburo on July 23, 2015. Till now, it has come into effect for eight years.
“Under the new context with unforeseeable changes and urgent requirements to facilitate the development of the country’s oil and gas industry, the Politburo authorised the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission to lead and work with relevant ministries, sectors and departments to build the Project to assess the implementation of Resolution 41-NQ/TW to submit to the Politburo in the second quarter of 2023,” he said.
To that end, he requested the working session participants concentrated on discussing the Group’s production and business activities in the period since the issuance of the Resolution, which focused on reporting and analyzing limitations, difficulties and causes, and recommendations related to policies, mechanisms, laws, especially to the petrol price management, investment procedures, business development, national petroleum reserves, foreign currency balance for petroleum exports and imports, and the construction, management and use of warehouses and depots/terminals.
He also required a deep discussion on the restructuring of the Group associated with the roadmap for divestment and equitisation, building and adjusting development strategies, planning and plans; as well as the outcome of the Group’s scientific and technological research, application, transfer and development.
Also, the Politburo member – Head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission asked Petrolimex to report the Group’s performances over the past time and major orientations in the international cooperation with strategic partners in association with the production, processing and distribution chain of new products and environmentally-friendly products such as LNG, hydrogen, etc. which is compatible with the current trend for clean energy use worldwide; and the environmental protection, economical and efficient use of petroleum, with significance attached to reduced emissions, especially greenhouse gas emissions in petroleum industry to fulfil Vietnam’s commitments at COP26.
Addressing the working session, the Central Enterprises Bloc’s Party Standing Committee member, Secretary of Petrolimex’s Party Committee, Chairman Pham Van Thanh said since 2015 the Group’s Party Committee has seriously grasped, disseminated and implemented the Resolution through an action programme within the whole Group.
The implementation has closely linked with the process of corporate restructuring, formulating the Group’s development targets and orientations in each stage. Currently, Petrolimex is the enterprise with 75 per cent of the State ownership and the largest downstream petroleum distributor, and plays a key role in stabilising the oil and gas market, meeting about 45 per cent for the country’s petroleum demand.
“Since its inception, in every context, Petrolimex has always been an enterprise that seriously implements the Government’s directions in petroleum supply to ensure the national security and defence, satisfy the consumption demand of the people and serve the national socio-economic development,” Mr.Thanh said.
Besides political task, Petrolimex focuses on corporate development in accordance with directions of the Party and Government on equitisation. After 10 years of equitisation, the Group has become a large-scale public joint stock company on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE) with a market capitalisation of over VND50 trillion and the accumulated dividends that the State received has exceeded the State’s capital contributions to the Group.
“In its strategic orientation, Petrolimex aims to become Vietnam’s No 1 group in trading clean and environmentally-friendly energy products in 2030, taking the lead in downstream petroleum business,” he said.
However, besides achievements, there were times when the petroleum business performance did not meet expectations, making the Group unable to proactively source capital for business investment and development.
The main reason is due to the lack of breakthrough legal normative documents to fundamentally handle some existing problems in the petroleum business whilst mechanisms in investment and business procedures remain complicated, especially for projects using State capital, which leads to disadvantages in mobilising foreign investment. Additionally, there is no policy for petrol price to fully operate according to the market mechanism. There still exist shortcomings in the issues of crude oil and petrol reserves, system planning, management of petroleum quality and trade fraud, support policies for fishermen, and smuggling of petroleum at sea.
Concluding the working session, the Politburo member – Head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Tran Tuan Anh spoke highly of achievements that Petrolimex has made over the past time and concurred with analysed contents as well as recommendations. He asked the Project building team to study and work with relevant ministries and sectors to finalise proper contents to include in the Project and co-ordinate with the Central Economic Commission to submit to competent authorities to examine and timely resolve shortcomings to enable the Group to continue bringing into full play their key role in ensuring the national energy security and stabilisation of petroleum and petrochemical market.
Regarding Petrolimex’s requests to facilitate petroleum-trading groups and corporations to study and develop green, clean, renewable, and environmentally-friendly energy, Anh said it is vital to closely follow the Politburo’s Resolution No 55-NQ/TW dated February 11, 2020 on the “Orientation of the Vietnam’s National Energy Development Strategy to 2030 and outlook to 2045”.
Under the context of complicated developments of the world economy, Anh said he believed that, with encouraging outcomes that the Group has achieved over the past years, all-out efforts of the whole staff, and the company of ministries and sectors, Petrolimex will advance with new and breakthrough developments in the coming time.
Some images featuring the working session:
