Beijing may turn down requests from major domestic oil producers for further subsidies for refineries, International Financial News reported (in Chinese). CNPC and Sinopec, China's two largest oil producers, have asked the National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC) for additional help covering
costs arising from high global crude oil prices, though NDRC vice director Zhang Xiaoqing told the newspaper that he "personally didn't agree" that they should be subsidized further. Oil refiners will suffer losses in the fourht quarter of 2007, though their performance for the full year performance will be good, said Zhang. Cao Jianhai of the Industrial Economics Research Institution at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said it was "unreasonable" for the state oil firms to stress losses in their refining businesses while ignoring large profits in their exploitation and sales sectors.