The trading arm of Vietnam’s state oil company has urged the US Navy to allow a crude oil tanker laden with Iraqi oil to sail through its blockade in the Middle East Gulf and provide a Vietnamese refinery with critical supplies, Reuters reports quoting a letter from the Petrovietnam Oil Corporation (PV OIL).

“This cargo is of extreme importance to Nghi Son Refinery (NSRP), to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and to the Vietnamese people,” PV OIL Vice President Hoang Dinh Tung has said in a May 12 letter seen by Reuters and sent to US military and diplomatic missions.

“NSRP’s feedstock inventories are critically low; any further delay risks halting refinery throughput, with cascading consequences for millions of Vietnamese consumers, businesses, public services and industries.”