BEIJING: Officials from the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner, are reported to have met refinery executives telling them for a temporary suspension of refined product shipments that would begin immediately, according to people familiar with the matter.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the decision was taken after reports of that the escalating conflict in the Persian Gulf disrupted the arrival of crude from one of the world’s largest producing regions.
The report cited Chinese officials as asking refiners to stop signing new contracts and to negotiate the cancellation of already-agreed shipments. the people said. An exception was made for jet and bunker fuel held in bonded storage and supplies to Hong Kong and Macau.
Bloomberg says PetroChina Co., Sinopec, CNOOC Ltd., Sinochem Group and private refiner Zhejiang Petrochemical Co., who regularly obtain fuel export quotas from the government, did not respond to its requests for comment. The NDRC also did not immediately respond to Bloomberg queries.
It may be mentioned here that around 20% of the world’s crude oil consumption—roughly 20 million barrels per day—passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow chokepoint between Iran and Oman. This volume accounted for over one-quarter of global seaborne oil trade in recent years, with flows remaining stable into early 2025 despite some declines from OPEC+ cuts and regional refinery shifts.
Other than that, the Persian Gulf broadly feeds this strait, including exports from Saudi Arabia (about 38% of Hormuz crude flows), UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, and Qatar’s LNG (one-fifth of global trade). Disruptions like those around Bab al-Mandeb have prompted bypasses (e.g., Saudi’s East-West pipeline), but combined capacity covers only ~2.6 million b/d, far short of normal traffic. Asia absorbs 84% of this crude, making China especially vulnerable.
