China Issues Second Batch of Refined Product Export Quotas Totaling 13 Mn Mt: Sources

China has issued its second batch of refined product export quotas for this year at 13 million metric tons, bringing the 2026 total to date to 32 million mt, slightly higher than a year ago, according to market sources and OPIS records.

China had issued 19 million mt of export quotas for the first batch this year and last. It then issued 12.8 million mt for the second batch in 2025 and another 8.395 million mt for the third.

The export quotas cover clean petroleum products, including jet fuel, gasoline, and gasoil. The latest quota breakdown by company is as follows:

Sinopec: 1.75 million mt under general trade route and 3.5 million mt under processing trade route;

PetroChina: 3.84 million mt under general trade route and 500,000 mt under processing trade route;

Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical Co.: 1.25 million mt under general trade route;

Sinochem: 920,000 mt under general trade route and 60,000 mt under processing trade route;

China National Offshore Oil Corporation: 950,000 mt under general trade route;

China North Industries Group: 200,000 mt under general trade route; and

China National Aviation Fuel Group Corporation: 30,000 mt under general trade route

These figures were provided by market sources and could not be independently confirmed with the refiners as the Chinese Ministry of Commerce does not officially announce oil product export quotas.

The processing route typically enjoys lower taxation than the general trade route but comes with more onerous paperwork and restrictions, market sources previously said.

Under the processing route scheme, refiners are exempted from import taxes on the crude oil feedstocks associated with the quotas and export taxes for oil products but are subjected to fixed export volumes and time slots, the sources added.

Apart from these regularly issued export quotas , China has also granted additional export volumes to select countries since the start of the Middle East conflict, a trader said.

In May, the additional volume was 500,000 mt, rising to 550,000 mt in June, the trader added.

Separately, China issued its second batch of very low fuel oil (VLSFO) export quotas totaling five million mt, which is a decline of 200,000 mt as compared to the second batch of 2025.

Exports of VLSFO in China are permitted only via bonded warehouse to be used as marine fuels for international voyages.

–Reporting by Thomas Cho, tcho@opisnet.com. Kite Chong, kchong@opisnet.com; Editing by Hanwei Wu, hwu@opisnet.com