SINGAPORE — China has issued 8.395 million metric tons of export quotas for gasoline, jet fuel and diesel in its third batch of allowances this year, trade sources said.
That was slightly higher than the 8 million tons issued for last year’s third batch of export quotas.
Official quotas issued for the year for these three products to date come to 40.195 million tons, in line with 41 million tons a year ago.
State oil majors Sinopec and CNPC were given a combined allowance of around 6.05 million tons, or 60 percent of the third batch, the sources said.
Private refiner Zhejiang Petrochemical was allotted up to 620,000 tons, they added.
China’s ministry of commerce did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment via fax.
The country manages its oil products exports via a quota system to ensure sufficient supplies for the local market.
For low-sulphur marine fuel, Sinopec was the sole company to gain an allowance in this batch, receiving 700,000 metric tons, the sources said, lower than the 1 million tons issued a year ago.
This brings the total quota issuance for low-sulphur fuel oil to 13.9 million tons so far this year, up from 13 million tons a year earlier.
Separately, at the end of July, several Chinese majors received approval to switch quotas received in the second batch between the two categories of fuels to maximise their export margins, trade sources said.
