China grants multiple licenses for wholesale sales and storage of crude and oil products

China’s Ministry of Commerce (MoC) has approved the licenses of 13 companies to engage in wholesale sales and storage of crude and oil products, to encourage more competition in the industry which is currently dominated by state-owned oil companies. The following companies received licenses to conduct wholesale sales: Sinochem Oil (Fujian) Co., Ltd., Tianjin Northern Petrochemicals Terminal Co., Ltd., Henan Yanchang Petroleum Sales Co., Ltd., Panjin Xingsheng Petrochemicals Sales Co., Ltd., Jiangmen Wanlong Investment and Development Co., Ltd., Suzhou Jingwan Petroleum Sales Co., Ltd., Tieling Baina Energy Co., Ltd. and Yanbian Northeast Asia New Energy Development Company Limited. The MOC also granted storage licenses of product oils to Anhui Huaqing Petrochemical Industry Co., Ltd., Dalian Zhongbeiya Petroleum Corporation, Zhoushan Nahai Oil Pollution and Water Treatment Co., Ltd., Huludao Jinhui Petrochemical Storage and Transportation Company Limited. In addition, PetroChina Huabei Oilfield Co., Ltd. was approved to market crude oil. Meanwhile, MoC canceled the licenses of the following to sell oil products wholesale: Xinyuan Petrochemical Storage and Transportation Co., Ltd. and Tieling Guoshi Group Petroleum Products Sales Company Limited. MoC has granted 196 companies with wholesale licenses since January 2011. About a quarter of these companies are either controlled by CNPC, Sinopec Group, CNOOC, Sinochem Group or China National Aviation Fuel Group. (April 1, 2012)