Association to serve China's oil market

With the increasing opening-up of its oil market, China established a nationwide industrial association on Thursday for the distribution of refined oil products, especially gasoline.

The new association, the China Petroleum Circulation Association under the Ministry of Commerce, will give suggestions for policy and legislation to the government to help accelerate reforms, said Di Jiankai, head of the association.

"We will pay more attention to new technologies from the Internet — especially those with impact on petroleum products — and promote new marketing modes including e-commerce, modern logistics and chain stations. In addition, we will develop new ways of paying for gasoline," Di said.

"Meanwhile, the association needs to do more research on electric vehicles and their impact on oil," he said.

By the end of 2012, China had 2,623 companies in the wholesale oil products business and 414 in the storage sector. The number of retail companies involved in oil products reached 110,200.

Nationally, China has 96,313 gas stations, according to figures from the association.

Up to 16 companies and institutions led by State-owned energy companies such as PetroChina Co and Sinopec Co, other private enterprises and foreign oil companies conceived the new association in December 2012.