PetroVietnam resilient amid pandemic with concerted effort for sustainable development

PetroVietnam's labourers perform technical maintenance at outdoor works

Right after the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic emerged on April 29, PetroVietnam has been well aware of the critical impact the new Delta variant might bring. The pandemic has been leaving harsh impacts on the core business lines of PetroVietnam, including petrochemical refining and distribution of petroleum products, gas industry, power industry.

The hardships have not only hurt PetroVietnam’s production and business, they also dented its contributions to the state and provincial budgets.

In a recent move, due to the mounting hardships of Binh Son Petrochemical Refining JSC (BSR) – a major member of PetroVietnam – the People’s Committee of Quang Ngai province where the company operates has sent a document to the prime minister asking to be given priority for using petroleum products made by local refineries to support local production and consumption of petroleum items.

Besides the pandemic, PetroVietnam has been encountering legal impediments as relevant policies and mechanisms have yet to be revised, such as investment mechanisms for extraction activities.

In this situation, PetroVietnam CEO Le Manh Hung has convened diverse meetings to deliver timely updates about COVID-19 and the market situation, and mandated the strict implementation of pandemic prevention measures under direction of the Party, the state, the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, and such committees in different localities where PetroVietnam’s member units operate. Several dozens of documents were enacted by the group’s top leaders to member units.

Checking control system to ensure smooth operations

With the objectives of ensuring labourers’ health; stabilising investment, production, and business activities, along with the safe circulation and consumption of goods, PetroVietnam has deployed four groups of measures.

To ensure labourers’ health, efforts have been geared towards continued strict implementation of pandemic prevention and control measures, higher than common requirements; accessing diverse vaccine sources and organising vaccination to ensure two shots of COVID-19 vaccine for all labourers in the group; ensuring the availability of medical supplies for safe pandemic prevention at the parent company and member units for use when necessary; and providing timely support for the labourers and employees materially and spiritually when they perform "stay-at-work" scheme to brace up their spirit.

To ensure stable and continuous operation, efforts have been made to effectively carry out the ‘stay-at-work’ scheme in parallel to working on diverse scenarios with the emergence of F0 (COVID-19 patients) in the production space to be able to present suitable remedies, sharing resources among member units to reduce stockpile resources, and presenting flexible scenarios on operation governance in the whole group system matching the government and the prime minister management directions.

To ensure investment efficiency, PetroVietnam has made strides to accelerate investment, particularly the projects to be completed in 2021 and 2022; maximally decentralising investment management, along with enhancing supervisory efficiency and striving to complete procedures relevant to E&P (exploration, exploitation and production) investment for submission to competent agencies, and focusing on implementing E&P projects in traditional fields.

In the rest of 2021, priority has been given to investment portfolio management at the parent company and member units to ensure the progress of investment projects, particularly striving to bring into operation Song Hau 1 themal power plant project this early November, and soon begin exploiting new oil drilling projects (BK 19, BK 18A) to bolster output for 2021.

Notably, one of the key tasks in the rest of 2021 is ensuring the seamless deployment of digital transformation and the application of modern digital platforms at all member units, striving to digitalise all procedures, processes, and management systems in the whole group by the end of 2021.

In the current context, the market plays a vital role in the existence and development of businesses. As a leading economic group of the country, PetroVietnam has always taken initiative to best avail of development opportunities, regularly keeping tabs on market updates to be able to present best-case scenarios to ensure efficiency of the whole group’s operation.

Simultaneously, PetroVienam continues working on plans to push up export consumption, along with consolidating the domestic market, paving the way to effectively grasp opportunities when the pandemic is over. With close attention and guidance of the party, the government, and the tradition of “coping well with difficulties” of PetroVietnam’s employees, the parent company and member units are expected to successfully accomplish its duties and tasks as usually despite unprecedented pandemic impacts.