OREANDA-NEWS.  October 22, 2012. China, the world's second largest oil consumer, has set its 2013 non-State crude oil import quota at 29.1 million metric tons, the same as this year, the Ministry of Commerce said.

The country also set its 2013 non-State fuel oil import quota at 16.2 million tons, unchanged from 2012, the ministry said on its website.

The crude import quota, equivalent to about 11.5 percent of China's total crude imports last year, will be allotted to traders outside the dominant four state traders - Unipec, Chinaoil, Sinochem and Zhuhai Zhenrong - but these non-State traders will have to sell back the crude they import to Sinopec and PetroChina.

As part of China's World Trade Organization commitments, the country had been increasing the amount of crude and refined fuels that non-state firms could import by 15 percent every year for a decade until 2011.