China: Shell subsidiary wins oil products wholesale license

The global oil trader is the first wholly foreign-owned company to win a wholesale license.

Shell’s chinese subsidiary Shell (Zhejiang) Petroleum Trading has received a license to trade refined oil products in the Asian country, reports Caixin.

Shell will now be able to independently trade oil products in China’s domestic wholesale oil market – a sign of China’s new openness to foreign investment in the fuel industry. In July, the government scrapped a limit on foreign ownership in gas station joint ventures and a limit on the number of stations foreign investors can operate.

The subsidiary of the oil giant is the first wholly foreign-owned company to win such a license for the wholesale market. Shell China currently operates about 1,300 gas stations across the country with plans to double those numbers by 2025.

Shell has partnerships with major Chinese national oil firms such as China National Petroleum (CNPC), Sinopec, China National Offshore Oil (CNOOC) and Shaanxi Yanchang Group Company (YCG).