The Bach Ho oil field drilling rig. Crude oil output in May reached 0.96 million tonnes, 2.1 per cent higher than the monthly plan. — Photo chinhphu.vn

The Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam)’s oil equivalent output reached 8.99 million tonnes in the first five months of this year, 4.4 per cent higher than its target.

Of which, crude oil output in May reached 0.96 million tonnes, 2.1 per cent higher than the monthly plan, while gas production fulfilled the monthly goal at 0.84 billion cu.m, according to PetroVietnam.

The firm generated 2.05 billion kWh of electricity and produced 149,800 tonnes of nitrogenous fertiliser, surpassing the monthly targets by 4.7 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively.

Its production of oil and petroleum exceeded 1.01 million tonnes during the month, only equivalent to 91.5 per cent of the monthly goal, largely because the Nghi Son Oil Refinery was cutting capacity for maintenance and the PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (PV Oil) reduced production of petroleum as demand dropped.

During the first five months, PetroVietnam followed fluctuations on the global and domestic markets to have reasonable solutions preventing the COVID-19 pandemic and also coping with difficulties in production and business due to the serious development of this disease.

The group also built scenarios to deal with situations of the global oil price falling. Of which, the worst scenario was to stop operation of mines and refineries.

PVN member companies shared information and resources and cooperated with other foreign and local partners to optimise operational efficiency in the PVN value chain.

The company has also made drastic efforts to cut nearly VND8.7 trillion in costs during the first five months of the year.

From January to May, the State-owned enterprise earned VND124.2 trillion (US$5.33 billion) in revenue, down 29 per cent from a year earlier. Its post-tax profit nosedived 49 per cent year on year to VND7.1 trillion. — VNS