Futures Daily News ( Alice Zhao ）On March 31, 2020，China independent Zhejiang Petrochemical is likely to become the first integrated refining-chemical enterprise to get the export quota for refined oil, according to the State Council.

Enterprises in the Free Trade Zone in Zhejiang are encouraged to export refined oil by non-state trade, especially the qualified integrated refining and chemical enterprise, the the State Council pointed out in the Approval of Several Measures to Support the Opening up and Development of the Oil and Gas Industry Chain in China (Zhejiang) Free Trade Zone. The quotas should be granted by year.

Zhejiang Petrochemical is the largest independent integration enterprise in east China, and the phase I with a processing capacity of 20 million mt/yr (400kbd) had come online in 2019, with a yearly output of 8.36 million mt of refined oil. Its phase II with 400kbd is scheduled to come online in 2022, which will produce 8.24 million mt of refined oil per year.

At present, Zhejiang Petrochemical’s refined oil is mainly distributed in east and south China.

Refined oil export is an effective way to reduce the domestic oversupply. While, at present only state-owned Sinopec, PetroChina, CNOOC, Sinochem and CNAF have the right to export refined oil. The private enterprises would get more policy support from the central government on crude import and refined oil export, as they are playing an increasingly important role in China economy.

In the short run, more integration enterprises will probably get the refined oil export licenses, such as Shenghong Refining and Chemical and Hengli Petrochemical. It was said that Hengli had applied for the refined oil export license last year but its application has not been approved.