In order to fulfill its WTO commitments, the Ministry of Commerce recently issued the "Measures for the Administration of Refined Oil Markets" and the "Measures for the Management of Crude Oil Markets", which will be implemented as of January 1, 2007, opening up the wholesale rights of domestic crude oil and refined oil products.

Chongquan, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, said on the 6th that after the implementation of the above two measures, it will break the pattern of unified national allocation of crude oil resources and the concentration of wholesale refined oil products by the two major groups of PetroChina and Sinopec, allowing qualified enterprises to engage in crude oil and finished products in China. Wholesale of oil, China's oil market will gradually form a pattern of state-owned large oil companies, multinational oil companies and social business units to participate in competition.

According to Chongquan, the two methods clarify the qualifications, application procedures, submission materials, supervision and management of crude oil and refined oil enterprises, and the main qualifications, approval procedures, and time limits for the implementation of administrative licenses for commercial authorities at all levels. Legal liability has been strictly regulated.

It is understood that private enterprises have entered all aspects of China's refined oil distribution. As of the end of November 2006, China's social wholesale enterprises accounted for 33.4% of the total domestic refined oil wholesale enterprises, and social gas stations accounted for 56.3% of the total number of domestic gas stations.