On July 3, China announced the termination of its two sets of management rules governing the oil product and crude markets, relaxing the barriers for investors on starting wholesale, retail and storage business in the two commodity markets.
In order to implement the “Regulations On Optimizing The Business Environment” and reform management in petroleum circulation, the Ministry of Commerce, or MOFCOM, terminated the “Management Rules on Oil Product Market” and the “Management Rules on Crude Market”.
Enterprises were required to gain approvals from the Ministry of Commerce before starting crude oil sales and storage, oil product wholesale and retail business, as well as storage business, according to the two management rules, introduced in 2006.
The government proposed to expand the access to the petroleum business in August 2019 by abrogating the approval requirements for wholesale and storage, as well as passing the retail licensing authority to the local governments from the commerce ministry, according to the Opinions on Accelerating Circulation Development and Promoting Commercial Consumption issued by the State Council.
MOFCOM released an opinion document in April this year seeking public comment on the possible replacement for the two management rules.
