World oil prices

In the first two trading sessions of the week, oil prices have continuously “red floor”, affected by concerns surrounding China’s unrecovered economy and uncertain demand from this East Asian country. Oil prices have plummeted despite the price-increasing factor of “huge” production cuts by OPEC+ and the seventh consecutive decline in the number of active oil and gas rigs in the US.

Gasoline prices experienced a weekly decline this week. Illustration photo: Reuters

Oil traders need to see a strong economic recovery materialize in China to improve their outlook for oil demand, according to Tina Teng at CMC Markets in Auckland.

However, China’s oil inventories have been steadily rising in recent weeks. In addition, several major global banks have downgraded China’s GDP growth for the year. The China National Petroleum Corporation has also lowered its oil demand growth forecast for the year, pouring cold water on immediate expectations of strong demand in the world’s top oil consumer.

Oil’s losing streak was snapped in the third trading session of the trading week. US corn and soybean prices rose to multi-month highs on hopes that global crop shortages could reduce biofuel blends and boost oil demand. The dollar fell after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggested the central bank was close to achieving its policy goals. The two factors helped oil prices rebound by nearly 2%.

UK inflation held steady at 8.7% in May despite expectations of a slowdown, prompting the Bank of England (BoE) to make a shock decision to raise interest rates twice as much as expected. On June 22, the BoE raised interest rates by half a percentage point to 5% to deal with high inflation. This was the bank's 13th consecutive rate hike. The BoE's decision sent oil prices tumbling by about 4%.

The final trading session of the week saw a slight decline in oil prices, reinforcing the downward trend of oil prices this week. Both Brent and WTI experienced a weekly decline. Brent fell to $73.85/barrel, WTI fell to $69.16/barrel.

Oil prices reversed last week's gains and returned to a downward trajectory. Illustration: Oilprice

US crude oil inventories fell 3.8 million barrels to 463.3 million barrels last week, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said, compared with analysts' expectations for a 300,000-barrel increase in a Reuters poll. Meanwhile, US gasoline inventories rose by about 480,000 barrels to 221.4 million barrels; along with the increase in gasoline inventories, US distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, also rose by about 430,000 barrels to 114.3 million barrels.

With traders buying WTI, Oilprice said oil prices could recover briefly before falling further.

Domestic gasoline prices

Domestic retail prices of gasoline on June 25 are as follows:

E5 RON 92 gasoline is not more than 20,878 VND/liter.

RON 95 gasoline is not more than 22,015 VND/liter.

Diesel oil not more than 18,174 VND/liter.

Kerosene not more than 17,956 VND/liter.

Fuel oil not exceeding 14,587 VND/kg.

The domestic gasoline prices mentioned above were adjusted at the price management session of the Ministry of Finance - Industry and Trade on the afternoon of June 21, with gasoline prices remaining unchanged, diesel and kerosene prices increasing slightly by less than 150 VND/liter, while mazut prices decreased by 132 VND/kg.

Since the beginning of the year, gasoline prices have undergone 18 adjustments, of which 9 have increased, 6 have decreased, and 3 have remained unchanged.

MAI HUONG