What are the requirements to obtain a license for operating refined oil products?

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This post was last edited by Green Lotus on 2019-11-25 at 21:31. Gasoline, diesel, and crude oil are all classified as Class 1 hazardous materials; they burn at around 60 degrees Celsius and are highly flammable and explosive substances. If safety facilities are not up to standard, accidents are very likely to occur; therefore, **the relevant authorities enforce strict regulations on the trading, transportation, storage, and so on of gasoline and diesel. 　　According to the provisions of the Measures for the Administration of the Refined Oil Market, the process for obtaining a License for Refined Oil Operations is as follows: Enterprises wishing to engage in the wholesale and storage of refined oil must submit an application to the provincial commerce department in their respective regions. After reviewing the application, the provincial commerce department submits its preliminary findings together with the application materials to the Ministry of Commerce, which then decides whether to grant a license for such operations. 　　Enterprises applying for the qualification to engage in the retail of refined petroleum products shall submit their applications to the local municipal (cities with districts, the same below) commerce authorities. After reviewing the application, the municipal commerce department shall submit its preliminary review opinions and the relevant application materials to the provincial commerce department. It is up to the provincial people’s **commerce authorities to decide whether to grant a license for retailing refined oil products. 　　Enterprises applying for the qualification to engage in the wholesale of refined petroleum products must meet the following conditions: 1. They must have long-term and stable supply channels for refined petroleum products: either they should possess refining companies that comply with **industry policies, have a primary processing capacity of over 1 million tons per year, and can produce gasoline and diesel in quantities of over 500,000 tons per year in accordance with **product quality standards; or they should be import enterprises with the qualification to import refined petroleum products; or else they must have entered into a supply agreement for refined petroleum products valid for at least one year with an enterprise that already has the qualification for wholesale of such products and handles at least 200,000 tons of refined petroleum products per year. Alternatively, they must have entered into a supply agreement valid for at least one year with an import enterprise that imports at least 100,000 tons of refined petroleum products per year ； 　　2. The applicant must have the status of a corporate entity in China ； 　　3. If the applicant is a branch of a Chinese corporate entity, such entity must possess the qualification to engage in the wholesale of refined oil products ； 　　4. Possess a refined oil depot with a storage capacity of no less than 10,000 cubic meters; the construction of the depot shall comply with urban and rural planning as well as depot layout plans ； And it passes the inspections by departments such as land and resources, planning and construction, safety supervision, public security and fire protection, environmental protection, meteorology, and quality inspection ； 　　5. Possess facilities such as transmission pipelines for receiving finished oil, dedicated railway lines, road transport vehicles, or waterborne terminals for finished oil with a capacity of over 10,000 tons. 　　Therefore, the requirements for companies wishing to obtain a license to operate in the refined oil sector are quite high. Specifically, these requirements include having a wide range of products for sale, large volumes of oil imports (an annual volume of 200,000 tons or more for gasoline and diesel, or an annual import volume of 100,000 tons or more), and owning a private oil storage facility with a capacity of 10,000 cubic meters. In a nutshell, you need to be very rich! Very rich! Very rich! Only then can you go through the process. The price of just one oil depot is almost 100 million! If we look at the volume of diesel and gasoline handled over another year (the amount of oil sold in bulk), the monetary value of that amount is an extremely large figure – you can figure out exactly how many zeros there are by doing the calculation yourself, haha. 　　So, to sum it up, an oil product operation license is not something that can be obtained easily as those who don’t understand the situation claim. This certificate was obtained by those big players in the oil industry; they go to the three major oil companies to secure allocations of oil, with amounts of at least several hundred thousand tons per order. For us small and micro enterprises that want to engage in retail and wholesale, we shouldn’t even think about applying for such a certificate, as our volume of gasoline and diesel does not meet the minimum requirements for it to be valid. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a message below.