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Fuel rationing halted in several regions, says China
Wed, Nov 28, 2007 The Straits Times
BEIJING - CHINA said its oil majors have halted fuel rationing in several main consumption centres and along some key trans-provincial highways following a series of measures aimed at boosting supplies. Rationing and queues have been widespread across the country since last month as global oil prices soared and refiners curbed sales into the price-controlled domestic market to minimise losses. Top leaders had ordered state-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) on Saturday to ensure adequate oil supplies. Fuel rationing ended on the same day in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai municipalities and in Guangdong province, as well as along highways linking the capital to Shanghai and provinces further down the east coast, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said yesterday.

The areas worst affected by shortages include sugar-producing regions in Yunnan and neighbouring Guangxi, in south-western China, as well as eastern Zhejiang, which borders Shanghai, the NDRC said.

To safeguard sugar production and transportation in Guangxi and Yunnan, PetroChina, the listed arm of CNPC, provided an additional 27,000 tonnes of diesel and Sinopec increased its supplies to Yunnan by 27 per cent.

The two oil majors have also been supplying crude to qualified local independent refiners in north-eastern Chinese provinces, as well as in eastern Shandong, north-western Shaanxi and south-western Sichuan provinces, and buying back qualified refined oil products, said the NDRC.

China's domestic oil product supply will return to normal soon, once measures to boost supply, properly allocate resources and strengthen market supervision take effect, the statement added.

An almost 10 per cent rise in the price of diesel and petrol on Nov 1 helped ease the pinch, but fuel is still so scarce in some areas that filling stations continue to ration supplies. In some cases, truckers, bus drivers and other motorists have to wait for hours to tank up.

As parts of the country grapple with lingering fuel shortages, officials said China plans to build tanks in the country's south-western Chongqing municipality to store strategic supplies of refined oil products.

The reserves would be part of a second phase of building up such strategic stockpiles. The programme started with oil stored in eastern China near Shanghai, and other reserves are planned for the north-east and the south.

The Sichuan Reserves Administration Bureau and local government in Wanzhou, a district in Chongqing, signed an agreement last Friday on building a reserves facility, according to a report posted on the website of the Wanzhou district government.

China began filling its strategic oil reserves just over a year ago and now has between two million and three million tonnes on hand, according to state media reports. It plans to raise that amount to 12 million tonnes by 2010, giving the country reserves worth a month's supply.

REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS

No more curbs

Highways linking Guangdong to eastern Jiangxi province and Shanghai to Yunnan province in south-west