The possibility that Beijing may not award oil product export quotas to independent refiners has created turmoil in the industry and raised questions on the impact this would have on refinery run rates, oil product exports, and the Shandong provincial government’s infrastructure investment plans. Reliable trading sources in China told S&P Global Platts last week that the government may not allocate export quotas to independent refiners for 2017. This would leave the independent refiners dependent on state-owned trading companies to export oil products. The Ministry of Commerce, the authority responsible for allocating quotas, has not yet issued a statement. But a formal announcement may not come, given that the export policy for independent refiners is only valid until end-2016. The speculation has stemmed from the fact that the government has not yet asked the independent refiners to submit quota applications, when in fact, to secure quotas for the first […]