PetroVietnam, the state-owned energy company, is looking to revise its deal with ExxonMobil as part of wider efforts to find a deal with the US administration.
The current US administration has proposed heavy tariffs on countries with which it has large trade deficits. In 2024, Vietnam had a trade surplus of $123 billion, prompting the US administration to propose a 43% trade tariff – although this has been postponed until July, and replaced by a lower 10% rate while trade negotiations take place.
In addition to delegation leader Nguyen Hong Dien, Vietnam’s trade minister, various representatives from industrial and financial sectors, as well as other government agencies, took part in the second round of talks.
Central to a successful deal is finding ways to reduce Vietnam’s trade surplus with the US. As part of this, PetroVietnam is looking to increase how much US-produced crude oil it buys from ExxonMobil, the maker of lubricants like the Mobil DTE hydraulic oil. It will also look at ways to promote other purchases of goods from the US. Other measures include reducing the volume of goods flowing from China through Vietnam for export to the US – a practice that can distort trade balance figures.
Some Vietnamese companies are also looking at establishing facilities within the US. All these efforts are aimed at generating enough goodwill to demonstrate that Vietnam is committed to establishing a more sustainable trade relationship with the US, and thereby avoiding the unfavourable tariffs that have been proposed.
