China said it will increase petrol exports to Nigeria and Mexico in July and August as refiners seek outlets for their fuel amid new production and slowing domestic demand.
The Chinese shipments will increase as refinery outages in the United States and the Middle East .
China’s refineries, led by PetroChina Co, will export about 1.5 million tonnes of petrol a month in July and August, two senior traders with knowledge of China’s petrol exports were quoted as saying. That is up from June exports of one million tonnes and near the record of 1.69 million tonnes exported in March, according to Chinese customs data.
The export surge is a result of the start-up of two large-scale refineries owned by Hengli Petrochemical and Zhejiang Petrochemical that will each add about four million tonnes per year of new petrol output when fully operational.
PetroChina was granted petrol export quotas of 4.7 million tonnes in the second batch of quotas issued in May, more than half of the quotas given. As a result, the company is placing cargoes to Mexico, Chile and Nigeria, according to traders.
