China's largest fuel supplier has sold its first shipping fuel cargo helped by a joint sales partnership with BP.
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) sold its first bunker cargo to the United Arab Emirates, with a delivery of a 3,000 metric-ton shipment from the Yangtze Splendor to the port of Fujairah. The fuel was provided by BP, which has been utilising its sales network to support Chinese efforts to expand its growing shipping fuel business. In return for help in the Middle-East, Sinopec has agreed to open up its domestic network to BP's clients.
The cooperative effort is vital if Sinopec is to reach its goal of two-thirds domestic market share in bonded bunker fuel by 2013. “We bring our customers to BP and BP supplies the fuel using their facilities, and we share the profit,” says Zhou Yiqing, vice general manager in the bunker department of Sinopec Fuel Oil Sales Co.
According to Sinopec, China's sales of the tax-free oil are expected to more than double in growth to 20 million tons in 2015. Nonetheless, Sinopec's optimistic projections are less than half of the world's largest bunkering port, Singapore, which sold 40.9 million tons of the marine fuel last year.