CHINA has issued more crude oil import quotas for mostly private refiners that will allow them to bring in a further 12.9 million tons for the rest of 2019, a document showed Tuesday.

The third batch of quotas was allocated to 19 companies, including private refiner Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical Co. (ZPC), which was awarded 3.5 million tons, the document showed.

That takes to 163.9 million tons the total crude import quota issued so far for 2019, according to a media calculation.

China imported 369.04 million tons of crude oil in the first nine months of 2019, up 9.7 percent from the same period last year, customs data showed, boosted by the startup of new refineries as well as solid fuel demand in the country.

Privately owned Hengli Petrochemical Ltd. launched a 400,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) mega oil refinery in late May and ZPC aims to bring online a 200,000 bpd unit in the coming months on top its existing 200,000 bpd plant.

Hengli has become the first private refiner to win approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to supply jet fuel for commercial use, it said Tuesday, a first step towards selling the product overseas.

As well as independent oil processors, mostly based in the eastern province of Shandong, provincial government-backed Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group was also granted a crude import quota of 900,000 tons.

(SD-Agencies)