Chinese oil giant PetroChina has exported the first gasoline cargo from its 10 million mt/year (200,800 b/d) Qinzhou refinery in the southwestern province of Guangxi last month, industry sources said Monday.
The parcel of Euro 3-equivalent, low-octane gasoline was said to have loaded from Qinzhou port in the second half of January, and bound for PetroChina's Singapore blending tanks, one of the sources said.
Another source, however, noted that the refinery is not expected to be a regular exporter of gasoline in the short term, as its production is still geared towards supplying the domestic market.
In the event of exports, supply from the refinery is likely to comprise low-octane grades of 90-93 RON in cargo sizes of 10,000-15,000 mt due to draft restrictions at the Qinzhou jetty.
Separately, PetroChina has held talks with Vietnam's state-owned Petrolimex to build a 200 km oil products pipeline for gasoline and diesel, with a capacity of 3 million-3.5 million mt/year, stretching from the Qinzhou refinery to Vietnam's Quang Ninh province, by 2014.
PetroChina's gasoline exports come typically from its coastal refineries in northeast China -- the 411,700 b/d one at Dalian and the 140,000 b/d at Jinzhou.
