By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Apr. 21 -- Sinopec Corp. and PetroChina, along with their joint ventures involving several international oil majors, will dominate China's retail gasoline market well into the future, predicts Lijuan Wang in an April FACTS Inc. report.
Sinopec is a publicly listed subsidiary of state-owned China Petrochemical Corp. PetroChina is a publicly listed subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp.
Before China opened its retail oil market to international investment last Dec. 11 as part of its commitment to becoming a member of the World Trade Organization, Sinopec and PetroChina began to acquire and consolidate local gasoline stations owned by smaller private companies, Wang said.
After this large consolidation, the government ruled that only the two state firms could build service stations. In the late 1990s, China had about 100,000 stations.
Since early 2004, BP PLC, Royal Dutch/Shell, and ExxonMobil Corp., have been welcomed in joint ventures with the Chinese companies. Later in 2004, Saudi Aramco and France's Total AS also established joint ventures in China's retail fuel business.
The two Chinese firms and their joint ventures "largely will divide up the Chinese retail oil market," Wang said. "This development will continue at least until Dec. 11, 2006, when China officially opens its wholesale oil market to foreign investment."
