The Ministry of Industry and Trade issued a Circular amending, supplementing and abolishing a number of regulations on petroleum trading.

In order to implement a number of regulations on petroleum trading that have just been issued by the Government in accordance with the practice of State management and petroleum trading activities in Vietnam, on March 13, 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Circular No. 18/2025/TT-BCT amending, supplementing and abolishing a number of regulations in the Circulars regulating petroleum trading.

One of the highlights of Circular 18/2025/TT-BCT is the addition of regulations on reporting on the use of petroleum warehouses applicable to petroleum wholesalers and petroleum distributors who own petroleum warehouses for lease and rent petroleum warehouses; assigning the responsibility of state management on the use of warehouses.

Specifically, for traders who are key traders in the petroleum business, traders distributing petroleum with owned petroleum warehouses for lease to other petroleum traders, they are responsible for periodically reporting quarterly on the situation of warehouse usage and warehouse leasing according to the issued Form to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Department of Industry and Trade in the area where the trader leases the warehouse before the 10th of the first month of the following period. Accordingly, the information to be reported includes: name and address of the warehouse; total capacity of the warehouse; Name, address of the trader renting the warehouse, tank, leased capacity, and output of petroleum through the warehouse during the reporting period.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade issued a Circular amending, supplementing and abolishing a number of regulations on petroleum trading.

For petroleum wholesale traders and petroleum distributors who rent warehouses to serve petroleum trading activities, they are responsible for periodically reporting quarterly on the use of the rented warehouse according to the issued form to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Department of Industry and Trade in the area where the trader rents the warehouse before the 10th of the first month of the following period. The information to be reported includes: Name and address of the rented warehouse; Name, owner of the rented warehouse, tank, rented capacity; total output of petroleum through the warehouse during the reporting period.

The Department of Industry and Trade of provinces and centrally-run cities will inspect and monitor the implementation of warehouse lease contracts, the volume of imported and exported petroleum through the warehouses of petroleum traders renting warehouses in the area. At the same time, it will stipulate that in case of detecting signs of traders not using the rented warehouse according to the signed contract, they must promptly report to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for coordinated management.

Along with that, Circular No. 18/2025/TT-BCT also stipulates the retail agent of gasoline when signing a contract to act as a retail agent of gasoline. In the case where a trader signs an agency contract with two or three traders who are key traders of gasoline or gasoline distributors, the trader shall prepare a report on changes and supplements to the agency contract and send it to the competent authority to request the issuance of additional or amended Certificates and Certificates as prescribed in Point b, Clause 4, Article 20, Point b, Clause 2, Article 25 of Decree No. 83/2014/ND-CP to amend or supplement information about the trader supplying gasoline in the Certificate of eligibility to act as a retail agent of gasoline and the Certificate of eligible retail store of gasoline.

In the case where a trader has only one retail petrol station and signs a petrol agency contract with two or three traders who are main petrol traders or petrol distributors, the trader must prepare a dossier requesting the issuance of a supplementary or amended Certificate of Confirmation as prescribed in Point b, Clause 2, Article 25 of Decree No. 83/2014/ND-CP to amend or supplement information about the petrol station supplier in the Certificate of qualified petrol station.

In addition, to improve the process of managing gasoline prices according to current legal documents, newly issued legal documents and Conclusions of inspection and examination agencies, and current practice of managing gasoline prices, Circular No. 18/2025/TT-BCT dated March 13, 2025 has added regulations on the mechanism of managing gasoline prices, specifically: "Based on data on the elements constituting the base price of gasoline according to regulations and written opinions on gasoline price management of the Ministry of Finance , the Ministry of Industry and Trade shall announce the base price and selling price of gasoline."

The Circular also amends and supplements the provisions on inspection and issuance of Certificates and Certifications. In particular, the provisions on inspection and issuance of Certificates of eligibility to act as general agents for petroleum trading are removed: According to the provisions of Point a, Clause 2, Article 2 of Decree 80/2023/ND-CP, traders who have been granted Certificates of eligibility to act as general agents for petroleum trading may continue to operate until the Certificates of eligibility to act as general agents for petroleum trading expire. Thus, for general agents for petroleum trading whose Certificates are still valid, during the operation, they do not have to carry out administrative procedures for new issuance and only retain the procedures for amending, supplementing and re-issuing Certificates of eligibility to act as general agents for petroleum trading.

In order to meet the requirements of state management on registration, allocation, and adjustment of the minimum total petroleum source limit for petroleum traders in a specific, clear, fair, and feasible manner according to the Conclusion of the Government Inspectorate , the Circular has been reviewed and supplemented with requirements on the time limit for registration, allocation, and adjustment of the total source, and at the same time, the provision that petroleum traders must ensure the progress of importing or purchasing domestic petroleum according to regulations is added. In case of necessity, in order to ensure the supply of petroleum for the domestic market, the Ministry of Industry and Trade shall specify the progress of importing and purchasing domestic petroleum or adjusting the total minimum petroleum source for traders to implement.

This Circular abolishes the regulation on the Inter-sectoral Group for managing gasoline prices stipulated in Joint Circular No. 39/2014/TTLT-BCT-BTC regulating the method of calculating base prices; the mechanism for forming, managing, and using the Price Stabilization Fund and managing gasoline prices as stipulated in Decree No. 83/2014/ND-CP dated September 3, 2014 of the Government on gasoline trading.

Source: https://moit.gov.vn/tin-tuc/thi-truong-trong-nuoc/bo-cong-thuong-ban-hanh-thong-tu-sua-doi-bo-sung-bai-bo-mot-so-quy-dinh-ve-kinh-doanh-xang-dau.html