China Issues First 2026 Fuel Export Quotas

China has issued the first batch of fuel export quotas for the new year, at a total of 19 million tons, Reuters reported today, citing unnamed sources. The volumes were relatively unchanged on the first fuel export quota batch for this year.

The quotas include gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. In addition to those, Beijing also issued export quotas for 8 million tons of low-sulfur bunkering fuel. The bulk of the quotas, at over 70%, are going to state-owned energy majors Sinopec and CNPC. The two together received fuel export quotas for a total of 13.76 million tons of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.

Meanwhile, China’s 2025 fuel exports were lower on the previous year. At 52.65 million tons over the first 11 months of 2025, China’s refined fuel exports were 3.2% lower than exports for the respective period of 2024.

The fuel export numbers for November specifically stood 2.2% lower than the exports for November 2024. However, they represented a rather solid 13.3% increase on October fuel exports, data released earlier this month showed.

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Jet fuel exports performed especially well this year, shooting up by 10.9% on the year over the first 11 months of 2025, to 19.55 million tons. In November alone, jet fuel exports surged by 53.6% to 2.43 million tons.

Gasoline exports, meanwhile, took a dip both in November and over the first 11 months of the year. The November total stood at 610,000 tons, down by a sizable 51.7% from a year earlier, and the January-November total stood at 7.69 million tons, which was a 16% decline on 2024.

China’s fuel production this year pressured regional prices, putting other Asian refiners in a difficult position due to output that exceeded demand, notably in China itself, which prompted stronger exports for much of the year.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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