China's 2026 first batch fuel export quotas steady year on year, sources say

Updates with further details in paragraph 5 and 8

SINGAPORE, Dec 25 (Reuters) - China has issued 19 million tons of export quotas for refined fuels including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel in the first batch of such allowances for 2026, three trade sources familiar with the matter said late on Wednesday.

The world's second-largest consumer of oil also gave out 8 million tons of low-sulphur marine fuel export quotas in this batch, they said.

Volumes for both were steady compared with a year earlier.

China manages its refined fuel exports via a quota system to balance the supply-demand fundamentals in its local market.

The commerce ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment via fax.

State-owned oil entities Sinopec and CNPC, the main receivers of the quotas, were given 13.76 million tons of allowance for gasoline, jet fuel and diesel exports - more than 70% of the total volume.

Major private refiner Zhejiang Petrochemical was allotted 1.56 million tons of export quotas for this first batch.

Of the total 19 million tons of export quotas for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, 6.6 million tons were for processing trade - typically for aviation fuel bunkering purposes..

Meanwhile, of the 8 million tons of allowance for low-sulphur marine fuel, almost 85% went to Sinopec and CNPC.

In the first 11 months of 2025, China's exports of refined oil products - including gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel and marine bunker fuel - totalled 52.65 million tons, down 3.2% on the year.

(Reporting by Trixie Yap and Siyi Liu; Additional reporting by Sam Li and Beijing newsroom; Editing by William Mallard)

((trixie.yap@thomsonreuters.com;))