BSR is a subsidiary of Viet Nam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam, PVN) and operator of the US$3 billion Dung Quat Oil Refinery in the central province of Quang Ngai – the first oil refinery in the country.

According to BSR’s audited consolidated financial statements for 2018, the company produced and sold more than 7 million tonnes of products, with revenue reaching over VND112 trillion ($5.13 million) and profit totalling VND3.6 trillion.

During the year, BSR’s mid-year assets were more than VND60.6 trillion while the figure at the end of the year was nearly VND51.9 trillion.

Notably, liabilities decreased from VND29.6 trillion to VND20.6 trillion and equity increased from VND30.95 trillion to VND31.3 trillion.

Last year marked many important events for BSR. The company was the first affiliate of PetroVietnam to successfully launch an initial public offering (IPO) on January 17 on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange with over 242 million shares.

All shares were sold and BSR collected VND5.42 trillion via the sale, 53.5 per cent higher than expected.

On March 1 last year, BSR shares were listed on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM). On June 21, BSR successfully organised the first General Meeting of Shareholders and officially changed itself to a joint stock company on July 1.

However, BSR also revealed that after successfully transforming into a joint stock company, the company faced many difficulties, one of which was the fluctuation of world oil prices.

Dated Brent dropped from $86.16 per barrel on October 4, 2018, to $50.21 per barrel on December 28, causing prices of the company’s products to decline. For example, due to declining global oil prices, Mogas 92 dropped from $91.81 per barrel to $53.78 per barrel.

The volatility of crude oil prices is detrimental to all oil refineries, including petroleum trading and distribution units.

As being an oil refinery operator who has to continuously produce and process oil products, BSR must maintain a constant amount of crude oil and need a certain period of time to process crude oil to change it into final products for sale. This means that when the prices of crude oil and oil products decrease, the costs of inventory will be affected, rising higher than the market prices.

In order to respond to the unpredictable changes of global oil prices, BSR has actively applied many new flexible solutions, one of which is operating Dung Quat oil refinery safely and stably at 107 per cent of designed capacity.

The company has also promoted sales, reducing crude oil and oil product inventories to an optimal level, while applying energy and technology solutions.

BSR has also thoroughly implemented the solutions to enhance the control of consumption norms, optimise production, save costs, promote scientific research and improve technical infrastructure.

As a result, BSR has minimised the impact of the market and achieved business and production targets in 2018, of which the target of output was achieved 38 days ahead of schedule.

BSR ranks 7th in the list of Viet Nam’s largest enterprises. It was also named 14th in the list of Viet Nam’s 500 most profitable enterprises.