Viet Nam will become a coal importer in 2017 of 2.3 million tones for domestic electricity production. — VNA/VNS Photo Trong Dat

By Vuong Tien Thanh

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam will become a coal importer in 2017 of 2.3 million tones for domestic electricity production, according to Dr. Nguyen Tien Chinh, Viet Nam Mining Science and Technology Association (VIMA).

He made this declaration at an energy conference hosted in Ha Noi on Thursday.

The conference aims to find solutions for the management of science and application of advanced technologies for petroleum and coal mining in Viet Nam.

Currently, the country's total coal reserve is about 47 billion tones. Of this figure, the reliable coal reserve is about 3.9 billion tones, said Le Van Duan, Deputy Director of the VINACOMIN Industry Investment Consulting JSC.

By 2025, the volume of coal import will be about 48 million tonnes and in 2030 about 80 million tonnes, according to Chinh.

He said that Viet Nam could import from major coal export countries, including Australia, Indonesia, Russia or South Africa, but each country has its own problems.

Australia has a stable coal import policy but it has a high investment cost. Indonesia has an advantage of transport distance but in the future, this country's domestic demand will increase, therefore the Indonesian government tends to limit exports, Chinh said.

Meanwhile Russia has great potential in coal reserves but it has harsh weather conditions and is far from Viet Nam. South Africa also has the potential of coal reserves and low production costs but its transport infrastructure is poor, said Ch?nh.

Therefore, in order to provide a stable coal supply for domestic products, Viet Nam should build and organize an import policy and strategy, he concluded.

Reports not taken seriously

The implementation of the periodic mining activities reports of some individual organizations have not been taken seriously, said Dr. Lai Hong Thanh, Director of Northern Department for Control of Minerals Activities in the conference

This has led to the difficulty of the government in controlling the actual coal mining output of these organizations and individuals.

To remedy this condition, he suggested the government must have the statistics of the inventory of the reserves of each mineral resource to understand the volatility of each mineral, Thanh said.

In addition, the government should consider establishing a mineral fund and allocate it to the Ministry of Finance to manage. This fund would be established by the revenues from natural resource taxes, payments for mineral extraction rights, and revenue from auction mining rights, according to Thanh.

EOR technology need encouragement

The implementation of the Enhanced Oil Recovery, or EOR, will increase the oil mining output, thereby contributing to increased revenue for Vietnam, according to Pham Kieu Quang from Viet Nam Petroleum Institute.

EOR is the implementation of various techniques for increasing the amount of crude oil that can be extracted from an oil field.

However, this technology has not been encouraged by current policies, Quang said.

Meanwhile, to encourage the development of EOR technology, many countries use a policy of encouraging such as China's tax exemption for mineral resources while Malaysia reduced corporate income tax from 38% to 25%, Quang said

To develop EOR projects in Viet Nam, Quang suggested that the government should impose a natural resources tax, as well as a corporate tax from 32 per cen to 28 per cent for increased output using EOR technology. —VNS