Fifteen Chinese companies will see themselves granted crude oil import licenses before the end of the year, a Ministry of Commerce official was quoted as saying on Wednesday by Shanghai Securities News.

The action is part of China's moves to open up its oil market as part of its WTO accession pledges, Wu Guohua, deputy chief of the ministry's policy research office, was quoted as saying although he refused to name the 15 companies concerned.

Currently, five large state-owned firms monopolize crude oil import licenses, namely China National Petroleum Corp., China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., China National Offshore Oil Corp., Sinochem Corp., and Zhuhai Zhen Rong Company.

Wu did reveal that any crude oil importers would have to abide by strict standards including possessing total oil storage capacity of over 200,000 cubic meters and agree to signing long-term contracts with major oil refiners.

Analysts said that this fresh batch of licenses will improve the speed at which China is able to build up domestic strategic oil reserves.

On April 10, the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, released the Eleventh Five-Year Plan for Energy Development (2006-10), which issued a clarion call for companies to develop commercial oil reserves as it tries to balance rising prices with potential supply cuts.

(Xinhua News Agency April 18, 2007)