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Prospecting the Local Oil Market As a part of its WTO

游客2023-07-29  28
问题                      Prospecting the Local Oil Market
    As a part of its WTO commitments, China opened its retail oil market at the end of last year. By December 2006, China will open up its wholesale market, allowing foreign enterprises to sell oil in large quantities and compete head on with China’s state-owned oil companies. Foreign oil businesses will be able to build up oil depots, set up wharfs (码头) for shipping and create bigger sales networks. In order to capture as much market share in China as possible, many foreign oil giants have already allocated (拨款) capital to expand their presence in China and devised strategic plans to increase their competitive edge.
    Fierce competition is unavoidable as the Chinese oil market opens further. China is now the world’s third largest consumer of oil. Currently, the two state-owned enterprises, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) and China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), dominate the Chinese wholesale market, and foreign companies must get their approval before they can enter local retail and wholesale markets. In addition, the oil import business is monopolized by the following five Chinese enterprises: Sinopec, CNPC, Sinochem Corp., China National Offshore Oil Corp. and Zhuhai Zhen Rong Co. Nevertheless, experts say that as long as WTO commitments are honored, the monopoly in China’s oil sector will be broken. Though the market share of foreign companies will likely increase to some extent, experts say that it shouldn’t challenge the dominance of Sinopec and CNPC.
    Breaking the Monopoly
    "After 2006, the monopoly will end. The market will be carved up by three kinds of companies: state-owned wholesale enterprises, foreign enterprises and domestic private enterprises," noted an expert.
    Coincidentally, China tried to adopt a relatively free market before 1999. Privateand state-owned enterprises were developing together in the oil retail and wholesale markets. However, by 1998, the oil market became uncontrolled. It fell into disorder with the positioning of too many gas stations and rampant international oil smuggling. With ineffective government management and control, the private enterprises expanded viciously, costing Sinopec and CNPC millions of U.S. dollars income losses.
    In May 1999, the State Council decided to rectify (改正) the disorder in the domestic oil market by retaining no wholesalers other than Sinopec and CNPC. Therefore, the wholesale market changed from a free market into one monopolized and controlled by Sinopec and CNPC.
    After China’s entry into the WTO, the wholesale market was loosened to some extent. In October 2003, Hubei Tianfa Co. Ltd. was granted a license to enter the wholesale market by the Ministry of Commerce, allowed to deal in the gasoline, kerosene, and diesel oil wholesale business. While it marked the entry of a third company in the wholesale market, the license was the first ever granted to a Chinese private enterprise since the market was restructured in 1999. Since then, Chinese private capital has gradually begun to enter the wholesale oil market.
    Foreign Competition Ready
    The wholesale oil market is going to be opened up in 2006 and the cooperation between foreign oil companies and their Chinese counterparts is beginning to change. The focus of foreign companies is changing from cooperation with Chinese companies to exploration and development. They are now building their own petroleum processing and storage stations and increasing their stake in the sales center.
    According to the current local policy, the storage capacity of a wholesaler’s oil storage depots must be larger than 4000 cubic meters. Last year, BP Global (British Petroleum) built up the Nansha oil depot as a joint venture with Guangzhou Development Industry Co. Ltd. The Nansha oil depot, currently the largest and most advanced oil depot in China, is located on the banks of the Zhujiang River, Guangdong Province. It is capable of storing some 360 000 cubic meters of oil, and can also store reserves of diesel oil, gasoline and other chemical products. In addition, the oil depot has a wharf with a capacity of 80 000 tons.
    It is reported that apart from BP other foreign oil giants are stepping up their effort to build their own oil depots in China.
    As a matter of fact, foreign companies have long coveted (垂涎) the Chinese oil market. As early as in 1985 and 1987, Shell was involved with two oil depot joint ventures in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, Guangdong Province. About 10 years ago, many foreign companies built gas stations as joint ventures in China. Currently, BP is one of the biggest transnational corporations investing in Chinese gas and oil fields, with an aggregated investment of $4.5 billion, 36 gas stations and many natural gas joint ventures in China. The total investment of Shell in China has reached $1.7 billion, possessing 20 oil enterprises and 40 gas stations.
    It is reported that there are about 85 000 gas stations in China, of which more than 30 000 belong to Sinopec, 37 percent of the total. They occupy 52 percent of the market share. More than 20 000 gas stations belong to CNPC, accounting for 19 percent of the total number and about 28 percent of the market. Apart from Sinopec and CNPC, there are more than 33 000 gas stations owned by other companies and about 400 joint venture gas stations, making up 44 percent of the total and amounting to a market share of about 20 percent.
    Market Shares
    The opening-up of the wholesale market will bring great competitive pressure on Sinopec and CNPC. Just how much market share foreign companies will take is probably the biggest question for many oil insiders as well as the long-time local giants, Sinopec and CNPC.
    The market share in the retail area will naturally depend on how many gas stations foreign companies can snap up. The stations can also give them leverage in capturing more of the wholesale market. The problem is that the Chinese retail market has become saturated. The number of Chinese gas stations will mean more resources wasted. Furthermore, the sales network, mainly belonging to Sinopec and CNPC, has already spread across the country. Therefore, it will be hard for foreign companies to gain a competitive edge. Some of the other 40 000 gas stations are controlled by private wholesale oil enterprises. Because of their own limitations, these wholesale companies are unable to compete with foreign wholesale companies. As a result, foreign oil companies will target joint gas stations; on the other hand, more independent gas stations will choose foreign enterprises as gas providers.
    Another big challenge confronting foreign companies is the retail price of oil. It is a rule that the foreign companies entering Chinese market must follow the Chinese pricing mechanism for oil products. Retail price fluctuates with the market and is subject to price caps prescribed by the country. At present, the retail and wholesale price of oil in China is based on the weighted average of prices in New York, Rotterdam and Singapore. The retail price is 5.5 percent higher than the wholesale price and it can also fluctuate below or above 8 percent after the retail price is fixed. However, taking market security into account, China does not strictly carry out the price fixing measures, meaning the domestic price does not reflect the international price. In general, the wholesale price is determined by wholesale enterprises and is subject to some fluctuations, while the retail price, decided by the State Development Planning Commission, will not change even if the wholesale price changes. [br] After the wholesale oil market is opened up to the outside world, there will be changes in cooperation between foreign oil companies and ______.
选项
答案 their Chinese counterparts
解析 此题答案可从第七段第一句话中“The wholesale oil market is going to be opened up in 2006 and the cooperation between foreign oil companies and their Chinese counterparts is beginning to change．”得出。
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