Foreign-Access Plan
For Wholesale Market
Is Vague, Firm Says
By DAVID WINNING
August 2, 2006
BEIJING — Draft rules for China’s domestic oil trade are prompting concern about whether the country will make good on a commitment to open the sector to foreign companies this year, executives at French energy company Total SA said.
China committed to letting foreigners into its oil market as part of its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. The retail business was opened at the end of 2004, allowing foreign companies like Total to run a small number of filling stations on their own or to operate larger networks with Chinese partners. By the end of this year, according to its WTO deal, China is to let foreigners into the wholesale market — the business of distributing gasoline and other oil products from refiners to filling stations. That sector has long been dominated by two state-owned companies: China Petrochemical Corp., or Sinopec, and China National Petroleum Corp., parent of U.S.-listed PetroChina Co.