With overall balanced supply and demand of oil products, China will not raise the prices of gasoline and diesel oil in the near future, said official with State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC) on Sunday.
According to SDRC, the supply and demand of oil products roughly maintain balanced on China's domestic market. China refined 190 million tons of crude in the first three quarters of this year, up 15 percent year on year. During the period, production of gasoline, kerosene and diesel oil reached 120 million tons, up 16.4 percent; and the amount of imported finished oil products reached 3.85 million tons, up 88 percent.
In order to guarantee the adequate supply of oil products, noted the official, the central government has asked the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), the nation's oil and petrochemical giants, to take still greater efforts in oil products processing and for import.
Transportation departments have also been urged to deploy adequate carrying capacity and guarantee smooth circulation of oil products, he acknowledged.
The official went on to acknowledged that SDRC has decided to immediately initiate a nationwide check on the prices of oil products in a bid to deal with those who are spreading rumors on price hike, stocking up oil products or raising oil products prices at will.
The oil price on China's domestic market is currently fixed by the SDRC on the basis of the weighted average of futures exchanges in Singapore, Rotterdam and New York. Currently, the price of China's petroleum products is a quarter of those in Europe and half of Singapore.
(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2004)
