The Ministry Of Commerce will announce China's new fuel oil import policy for 2004 in mid-December, in part to better meet a requirement by the World Trade Organization to open markets to more participants, a ministry official said Thursday.

While details of the new policy were not immediately available, the official confirmed that fuel oil importing companies will need to register with the ministry.

He said both state-owned and privately-owned companies can register with the ministry, but approval will be based on the registering company's business track record over the last three years.

The government isn't likely to abolish the criteria for allowing trading houses to import fuel oil next year, said a China-based oil trader, who is familiar with the new policy.

Such criteria includes ownership of a port with a handling capacity of 10,000 metric tons and oil product storage of no less than 50,000 tons.

Currently, China's fuel oil imports are administered through a quota system. For 2003, the Ministry of Commerce issued 19.5 million tons of fuel oil import quotas. According to China's agreement with the WTO, China will eliminate the crude and oil products import quota system next year.

The ministry will continue to control the overall fuel oil import volume next year through the new registration system, said the China-based oil trader.

Chinese trading houses are eligible to import up to 23.5 million tons of fuel oil for this year, including about 4 million tons of quotas left over from last year, traders said.

China's fuel oil imports in the first nine months of this year reached 18.5 million tons, up 60% on year.

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