Private retailers to get fuel supply allocation

Privately owned Chinese gas stations may finally get help to survive the lack of fuel resources in China’s monopolistic oil industry. An assured supply of 5 million tons of oil products may be expected annually by these private companies. State-owned oil giants, such as China National Petroleum Corp. (PetroChina) and China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec), have exclusive access to oil and gas exploration and production, which leaves privately owned companies struggling to find sufficient supplies at a good price. Under the new policy, the government is expected to buy products from the major oil companies and sell them to smaller gas stations at a fixed price. (August 15, 2007)