China has suspended fuel exports to every destination except Hong Kong and Macau as the country entered its Golden Week holiday on October 1. State oil major PetroChina walked back several gasoline and jet fuel cargoes it had only just lined up for October, most of the bookings made in just the past two weeks, and privately controlled Zhejiang Petrochemical left the entire holiday week off its shipping calendar.
Beijing has set no date for lifting the suspension, with any restart hinging on how domestic stockpiles and refinery output are holding up once the holiday ends October 7.
Brent crude gained 2.4% to settle near $100.36 a barrel, clawing back a session that had opened in the red, while WTI added 2.5% to reach $92.70. Asian diesel margins climbed back above $75 a barrel, their strongest level in a week, and the October-November spread reached its widest point in two weeks.
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Beijing applied the same playbook in March, telling refiners to halt fresh export deals and unwind shipments already on the books, with carve-outs only for jet fuel used on international flights and for bunkering contracts. Sinopec and PetroChina’s state parent, China National Petroleum Corp, controlled more than 70% of that year’s export allowance, a combined 13.76 million tons spread across gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz had nearly stopped at the time, after the war between the US and Iran disrupted the chokepoint.
Those curbs eased by summer, and diesel exports rose 42%, and jet fuel exports 41% year-over-year in August as refiners rushed to sell into the brief opening. Refiners drew down domestic tanks in the process, leaving gasoline stockpiles at their lowest level since 2022 and diesel at a 15-month low. Energy Aspects analyst Jianan Sun projects Beijing may cap monthly clean-product shipments at roughly 1.2 million tons once the fourth quarter begins, well below the 2.55 million tons refiners shipped in July.
Persian Gulf oil exports have clawed back most of the volume lost to the war. However, that rebound has barely reached diesel, gasoline and jet fuel, which are still moving at only about half their usual pace, as refinery damage and tanker caution around the Strait of Hormuz keep processed cargoes scarcer than crude.
Read: Persian Gulf Oil Exports Claw Back To 2025 Levels Despite War Damage
