On December 14, the Ministry of Finance issued Official Dispatch No. 13834/BTC-TCDT to the Government Office reporting on petroleum reserve work.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the agency managing national petroleum reserves must be an agency with capacity, expertise, and professionalism; and have the function of state management of the industry and field.
Regarding the proposal of the Ministry of Industry and Trade to propose the Government to transfer the task of managing the national petroleum reserve from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to the Ministry of Finance in the period of 2024 - 2025, the Ministry of Finance said that according to the provisions of Article 8, Article 21 of the Law on National Reserves; Clause 1, Article 7 of Decree No. 94/2013/ND-CP; Article 1 of Decree No. 128/2015/ND-CP amending and supplementing Decree No. 94/2013/ND-CP, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is assigned by the Government to manage the national petroleum reserve, and the Ministry of Finance is responsible for state management of the national reserve sector.
Furthermore, petroleum is a special commodity, flammable, toxic and a conditional business; storage, transportation, purchase, sale, import and export must comply with strict technical standards; petroleum tanks, pipeline systems and means of transport must be specialized and specific.
Based on the assigned functions, tasks and powers, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is the agency assigned by the Government to perform the state management function of industry and trade, including sectors such as electricity, coal, oil and gas, energy, etc.
Therefore, the agency managing national petroleum reserves must be a competent, professional and technical agency with the function of state management of the industry and field.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the Government's assignment of the Ministry of Industry and Trade to manage national petroleum reserves is consistent with its functions, tasks, and capacity and actual conditions of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's management apparatus.
In case the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposes to amend the provisions of Decree No. 94/2013/ND-CP to transfer the national petroleum reserve from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to the Ministry of Finance for management, the Ministry of Finance requests the Ministry of Industry and Trade to carefully assess the legal basis, advantages, disadvantages, solutions and implementation roadmap to have a basis to report to competent authorities for consideration and decision.
Ministry of Industry and Trade does not purchase additional or compensate for national petroleum reserves
Regarding the resolution of difficulties and problems in the preservation of national petroleum reserves, according to the Ministry of Finance, since the National Reserve Law was promulgated in 2012 (effective from July 1, 2013), the Ministry of Industry and Trade has preserved national petroleum reserves together with commercial petroleum under preservation contracts and appendices to preservation contracts signed with 4 enterprises.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade does not select storage enterprises according to the provisions of Articles 51, 52, and 53 of the Law on National Reserves; Articles 13 and 15 of Decision No. 16/2020/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister promulgating regulations on management of national petroleum reserves and Article 4 of Circular No. 172/2013/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance on regulations on storage of national reserve goods.
Every year (from 2014 to 2022), the Ministry of Industry and Trade will carry forward the storage contracts signed in 2014 through contract appendices to store national petroleum reserves; in 2023, no contract has been signed to store national petroleum reserves.
Regarding the import and export of national reserve petroleum, the Ministry of Finance stated that since the National Reserve Law was promulgated in 2012, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has not developed and implemented increased purchases, additional purchases, or compensatory purchases of national reserve petroleum.
National reserve gasoline has never been used for export according to the provisions of the National Reserve Law; only sales (14,751 m3 of national reserve kerosene in 2012), export for conversion (121,435 m3 of 0.25%S diesel converted to 0.05%S diesel in national reserve in 2015), and export for loss (annually according to the norm).
According to the provisions of Article 37 of the Law on National Reserves, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is responsible for developing a plan for rotating goods exchange and sending it to the Ministry of Finance for synthesis and submission to the Prime Minister for decision and implementation during the planning year.
Every year, the Prime Minister does not approve the plan to rotate the exchange of national reserve petroleum because national reserve petroleum is stored by the Ministry of Industry and Trade together with the petroleum for business purposes of enterprises; the storage time and the actual quantity of national reserve petroleum that is rotated for exchange cannot be determined (national reserve petroleum is stored in the same tank as the petroleum for business purposes, so the import and export of petroleum is according to the business plan of enterprises, usually taking place daily).
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