SINGAPORE: China has issued at least 152.49 million metric tons of crude oil import quotas to independent refiners in a second batch for 2025 so far, several trade sources said on Monday.
These quotas are being issued in batches by provinces this year and follow a recent small batch of 5.84 million tons that was issued in November, the sources said.
This brings the total volume issued for 2025 so far to 158.33 million tons (3.17 million barrels per day) versus a total of 179.01 million tons for 2024.
Beijing manages crude imports by independent refiners under a rigid quota system.
The government has set a broad cap of 257 million tons for non-state importers, higher than the 243 million tons for 2024. Crude imports by dominant state refiners Sinopec, PetroChina and CNOOC are not subject to this quota management.
The quotas are granted to independent refiners including four large-integrated refiners as well as scores of smaller plants, known as teapots, making up more than one-third of total imports into the world’s largest buyer of crude.
Shandong-based Yulong Petrochemical, which started its first 200,000-bpd crude distillation unit several months ago, received 12 million tons of quota for 2025, according to the sources.
Shenghong Petrochemical, which operates a 320,000-bpd refinery in east China’s Jiangsu province, was given 16 million tons which is also a full-year quota, the sources said.
China Nov crude oil imports up 14% to 48.52mn metric tons
Privately controlled Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp,the country’s single-largest refiner, was granted a quota of 40 million tons, in line with its annual processing capacity, while Hengli Petrochemical, another private refiner, was allotted 18 million tons on top of the 2 million ton quota received earlier.
The Ministry of Commerce, which regulates import quotas, did not give any immediate response to a query sent by Reuters via fax.
The quota release came as China’s crude oil imports for the January-November period dipped 1.8% year-on-year, which could lead to a decline for the whole of 2024 as demand for transportation fuels barely expanded.
This would be the only annual drop in more than two decades outside the COVID-triggered falls in 2021 and 2022.
China’s crude oil imports are on track to peak as soon as next year as transport fuel demand begins to decline, ending the country’s decades-long run as the dominant driver of expanding oil consumption.
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