The Chinese government has suspended exports of diesel fuel and gasoline because of the conflict in the Persian Gulf, offering refineries to stop new contracts and review already agreed supplies, except for supplies to Hong Kong and Macau. These measures are aimed at meeting domestic needs, although China imports almost half of its oil from the region, reports ProFinance.Ru according to Bloomberg.
Large state-owned companies such as PetroChina Co., Sinopec, CNOOC Ltd., Sinochem Group and Zhejiang Petrochemical Co. regularly receive quotas for oil exports. However, none of those companies provided comment to Bloomberg.
China is Asia’s third-largest fuel exporter, following South Korea and Singapore, with a developed refining sector. But most of its output goes to meet domestic demand. Beijing is now taking preventive measures to supply the domestic market amid the crisis in the Middle East, which has affected the entire region that depends on oil imports.
In recent years, China has been actively diversifying its sources of oil supplies, but it still gets about half of its oil imports from the Persian Gulf countries, including almost all supplies from Iran.
After the U.S. and Israeli attacks in the Middle East began, oil exports from the Persian Gulf virtually ceased. As a result, refineries in Japan, Indonesia and India began cutting back on refining and exports. Against this background, interest in Kazakhstan’s oil is growing in Asia. The Kazakhstan-China highway allows oil to be delivered directly, bypassing maritime risks.
