China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has awarded a second round of crude oil import quotas -- a total 22.92 million mt (168 million barrels) -- to independent refiners and other oil companies qualified to import crude oil, sources said late Monday.
Several independent refiners had run out of quotas and were awaiting the second round of allocations.
Of the total, 20.17 million mt has been allocated to 21 refineries, which are not under the Chinese oil majors Sinopec, PetroChina, CNOOC and Sinochem, and the remaining 2.75 million mt to trading companies.
Refineries owned by Sinopec, PetroChina, CNOOC and Sinochem do not need to apply for quota to import crude oil.
The latest quota allocation takes the total crude oil import quota allocated so far in 2017 to 90.93 million mt after taking into account the 68.81 million mt allocated in the first batch.
Independent refiners were first allowed to process imported crudes in mid-2015. Prior to that they relied on domestic crude and fuel oil as feedstocks.
NDRC sets the maximum volume that an independent refiner can import in a year, while MOFCOM issues quotas for the actual volume the refiner is allowed to import.
