>> Black market for USD rebounds despite ban
>> Government stands firm on USD speculation
Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) sold a total USD2.7 billion to commercial banks in the first quarter of this year, said a firm official.
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| A corner of Dung Quat oil refinery, invested by PetroVietnam |
At a press conference in Hanoi on April 6, PetroVietnam Chairman Dinh La Thang said this is the total USD that the group earned in the quarter. It sold its this foreign currency at the request of the Government, which wanted to prevent speculation and “dollarisation”.
If necessary, the firm will be able to purchase their USD back from the bank, the chairman said.
According to Governor of State Bank of Vietnam, at the end of March, 78 state-owned corporations and groups had combined USD deposits worth USD1.61 billion, dispersed throughout commercial banks nationwide. Of that sum, USD376 million were term deposits.
The banks are required to resell USD to businesses as needed.
At the conference, Thang also disclosed that the Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN) still owes VND5 trillion (USD239 million) to PetroVietnam for power supply contracts signed with its affiliate PV Power.
However, EVN is facing difficulties of its own due to the disparity between their buying and selling price of power.
As a result, PetroVietnam will pump more capital into PV Power so as to continue providing power for EVN.
Between January and March, PetroVietnam earned revenues of VND151.2 trillion (USD7.23 billion), only 59.4% of the revenues of the same period last year.
In the second quarter, PetroVietnam has set a production target of 5.68 tonnes of oil equivalent with revenues of VND152 trillion (USD7.27 billion).
