Vietnamese government has asked state-owned PetroVietnam to pump an additional one million tons of crude oil this year, the national oil and gas company said on July 8.
The new production target in 2016, thus, will be raised from 16.03 million tons to 17.03 million tons of crude oil.
This is the second consecutive year that the government has assigned more production to the company to secure greater contribution to the state budget. In July last year, the government directed PetroVietnam to produce an additional one million tons of crude oil for the year to help achieve the targeted annual economic growth rate of 6.2 percent in 2015.
The government in a resolution released on July 7 said the country's annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first half was 5.52 percent, down from 6.32 percent in the same period last year. As part of the measures to help achieve GDP growth of 6.7 percent in 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has been directed to adjust the country's production target of crude oil.
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