The Ministry of Commerce recently approved the application of two China-foreign joint ventures to enter the refined oil wholesale business. They are Sinopec SenMei (Fujian) Petroleum Co Ltd and Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Co Ltd.

Related readings:  Sino-overseas JVs granted oil products wholesale licenses  Oil wholesale market to be opened up

Both located in Quanzhou, East China's Fujian Province, Sinopec SenMei is 55 percent held by Sinopec, and the rest by ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco; while 50 percent of Fujian Refining & Petrochemical goes to Fujian Petrochemical, and the remainder to China ventures of ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco.

With a combined value of US$5 billion, the two companies are the first China-foreign joint ventures that fully integrate refining, petrochemicals and fuels marketing.

The move to open up the domestic wholesale refined fuel market is considered another leap forward after China allowed foreign companies to enter the retailing refined fuel sector in 2004. It marks that foreign fuel suppliers now have total access to China's fuel distribution business.

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