Reuters reports that China has already increase its first batch of 2020 fuel export quotas by 53% from a year earlier to 27.99 million tonnes, keeping in mind that the 2020 sulphur cap will come into force in less than a day.
Specifically, the new quotas will be shared amongst five state oil companies; PetroChina, Sinopec, China National Offshore Oil Corp, Sinochem Corp and China National Aviation Fuel Corp, according to a document published by the Ministry of Commerce.
The Ministry did not provide any specifications on export products, as gasoline, diesel and jet kerosene; On the contrary, it will allow the companies to decide on their own what products to export.
The first round of the 2020 quotas will be split into 24.55 million tonnes under the general trade category and 3.44 million tonnes under tolling arrangements.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
Usually, Beijing issues three or more batches of quotas on an annual basis. The first batch issued for 2019 was 18.36 million tonnes, about a third of the annual total of 56 million tonnes eventually given.
In 2019, 48.15 million tonnes of quotas were given under the general trade category and 7.85 million tonnes under the tolling scheme, mostly for jet kerosene exports.
China provided Sinopec, Asia’s biggest refinery, with the largest quota at 13.36 million tonnes. Also, PetroChina received 9.2 million tonnes, CNOOC was given 2.58 million tonnes, Sinochem 2.79 million tonnes, whereas China National Aviation Fuel 60,000 tonnes.