Most state-owned refiners contacted by Platts said their existing oil product export quotas are sufficient for November and December, although a few Sinopec refineries might need to apply for fresh quotas.
China exported 16.87 million mt of gasoline, gasoil and jet fuel over January-September, up 21.3% year on year.
The government has issued four batches of quotas for a total of 28.65 million mt in oil products exports this year, up 47% year on year, indicating around 11.78 million mt of quotas remain for use in the fourth quarter.
Chinese state-owned refiners must apply for quotas from the government to export refined products.
They are not required to export the full allocated volume, but quotas expire at year's end and cannot be rolled over.
SINOPEC GUANGZHOU, MAOMING MAY BE SHORT
A source at Sinopec's 13.2 million mt/year (264,000 b/d) Guangzhou refinery in southern Guangdong province, said the plant would need to apply for new quotas after using up all of its remaining allocations in November.
The refinery needs quotas for 20,000 mt of gasoline exports and 10,000-20,000 mt of jet fuel exports in December.
Sinopec will likely combine all of the requests from individual refineries into one application to the commerce ministry, the source said.
Guangzhou refinery has been allocated quotas for 1.33 million mt of exports so far this year.
The 23.5 million mt/year Maoming refinery, also in Guangdong, also expects to run slightly short in December.
It planned to export 1.685 million mt of gasoline, gasoil and jet fuel over January-November, leaving around 165,000 mt of quotas unused for December -- for 135,000 of jet fuel, 15,000 mt of gasoline and 15,000 mt of gasoil, according to Platts survey based on the refinery's exports.
Maoming refinery's existing quotas could run short because it has been exporting more than 20,000 mt/month of gasoline in recent months and it boosted its jet fuel exports above 140,000 mt/month since September.
Sinopec's 9.2 million mt/year Hainan refinery still has unused quotas for more than 600,000 mt of exports, which is plenty for the rest of the year, a refinery source said recently.
PETROCHINA HAS PLENTY
Sources at PetroChina refineries said they do not plan to apply for new export quotas before the end of the year, given that the ones they have are sufficient to cover their planned oil product exports.
A source at PetroChina's 12 million mt/year (240,000 b/d) Guangxi refinery confirmed it has enough quotas left for November and December.
PetroChina applied for a significant volume in the fourth round of quotas, he said.
Guangxi refinery has been exporting around 230,000 mt of oil products in recent months and still has around 600,000-700,000 mt of quotas left for Q4, according to the source.
Dalian West Pacific Petrochemical Corp. in the northeastern Liaoning province, also does not need new export quotas, as they have switched some unused quotas for other products to gasoline.
The source previously estimated needing quotas for an extra 100,000 mt of gasoline exports, given recent exports of 170,000 mt/month.
The export-oriented Dalian Wepec and the Guangxi refinery have been allocated quotas for a total of 6.12 million mt of exports this year, accounting for 55.6% of PetroChina's allocations.
The Dalian Wepec source doubted whether the commerce ministry would allocate new quotas for only a few of a parent company's refineries. But Sinopec might be able to reallocate quotas among its refineries if the ministry does not grant new ones.