In a rather unexpected move, China raised the crude oil import quotas for “non state trade”—basically for independent refiners—by 55 percent for 2018 compared to 2017, signaling that it could be relaxing the rules for the so-called teapots and giving them more share of China’s oil imports. China’s Ministry of Commerce not only issued larger quotas, but made the announcement earlier than expected. Non-state companies now can begin applying for 2018 crude oil import quotas for a total of 142.42 million tons, or some 2.85 million bpd , up from 91.73 million tons in total quotas for this year. According to China’s official news agency Xinhua , the volume of the quotas for 2018 is equivalent to around 37 percent of China’s crude imports for 2016. Applicants for next year’s quotas should provide records of imports from the past two years or qualifications to process imported crude oil. The […]