OREANDA-NEWS. September 24, 2014. China's state-controlled oil firm CNOOC has exported the first jet fuel cargo from its 240,000 b/d Huizhou refinery, shipped from south China's Guangdong province to nearby Hong Kong.

A Vietnamese short-range vessel, the Aulac Ve-Nus, loaded around 95,000 bl of jet fuel from Huizhou.

The jet fuel will be used to supply Hong Kong's International Airport (HKIA), said CNOOC. China and Singapore are the main suppliers of jet fuel to HKIA, with South Korea, Japan and Thailand also occasional suppliers. China's commerce ministry granted CNOOC an export quota for 3,000 b/d of jet fuel and 3,200 b/d of gasoil for this year's third quarter, the first time CNOOC has been given such export rights.

Fellow Chinese state-controlled refiners Sinopec and PetroChina were granted third-quarter jet fuel export quotas of 48,800 b/d and 20,600 b/d respectively. CNOOC is expected to export another 180,000 bl of jet fuel in September.It possibly sold two 79,000 bl cargoes for September loading from Huizhou, with price levels undisclosed. Huizhou has been struggling to gain market share, as larger rival Sinopec's more developed marketing and retail network accounts for 80pc of sales in Guangdong.

CNOOC hopes export markets will help absorb the 100,000 b/d of diesel, 40,000 b/d of gasoline and 26,000 b/d of jet fuel that Huizhou produces when running at capacity. The refinery supplies 15,000 b/d of diesel and 11,000 b/d of gasoline to Shanghai but CNOOC have only 30 retail stations in the city compared with Sinopec's 600 outlets.