Chinese gasoline imports enter Mongolian market

The first batch of 5,000-ton Chinese gasoline imports entered the Mongolian market on Thursday.

The imports, known as "Mongolia No. 93 gasoline," were part of an agreement reached earlier in the year by the Mongolian government and the China National Petroleum Group, Mongolian officials said.

Under the cooperative project launched at the end of March, Mongolia will import a monthly total of 10,000 tons of gasoline from a refinery in Hohhot, the capital of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous region.

More than 10 companies are currently exploring for oil in Mongolia, a country with an estimated 1.6 billion tons of petroleum reserves.

Russia has long been Mongolia's major oil supplier. Having suffered acute oil shortages in recent years, Mongolia began to seek imports from China.