5 pilot companies may break monopoly on oil imports in China  

原油进口权垄断有望打破 五大民企被列为试点

近日，国务院政策研究室社会发展司司长邓文奎、中国石油流通协会专职会长赵友山带队前往五家公司调研。7月31日，赵友山对21世纪经济报道记者透露，目前，相关的试点申报材料正在整理，随后将上报国务院高层。 [查看全文]

(ECNS) – Five private Chinese companies are likely to become pilot units to be granted crude import licenses.

Application materials are still being processed, which will be submitted to the State Council soon, according to the 21st Century Business Herald, citing Zhao Youshan, president of the China Petroleum Circulation Association.

The five companies are Shandong Chenxi Group, Shandong Wanda Group, Shandong Tianhong Chemical Co., Shandong Huifeng Petrochemical Group Co., and Tangshan Bohai Petroleum Co. Ltd.

The pilot companies will have little influence on state-owned oil giants on account of their current scale, Zhao said.

But in the near future, quotas on oil imports for companies will be canceled, and crude imports won't be monopolized by a few state-owned companies, said Dong Xiucheng, a deputy dean at China University of Petroleum.

Currently, China's energy giants Sinopec and PetroChina have control of about 90 percent of the country's crude imports, while private companies can obtain very small quotas from the state Ministry of Commerce.

Earlier reports from Shanghai Security News on Thursday said China may give new import licenses to private companies and release new quotas on oil imports in the next two weeks.

The new quotas will be given first to the private companies that have overseas crude resources and are authorized to export from those locations.