A renewed domestic supply squeeze has led Sinopec Corp, Asia’s largest refiner, to halt gas oil exports in January, a company trader said.

“The January exports have been wiped out. Judging from the current tight situation, we may not export any barrels in February as well,” said the trader.
Traders close to the refiner’s exports programmes had earlier forecast exports of 10,000 to 20,000 tonnes for January.
China’s prolonged power crunch is cutting deeper into oil supplies, and has caused widespread rationing of diesel, or gas oil, at gas stations in eastern provinces in recent weeks.

The shortage could worsen in about three weeks when hundreds of millions of Chinese travel for Lunar New Year family reunions. Tightness eased briefly in early December when refiners maximised gas oil output.
The Sinopec trader also said the firm’s gas oil exports in 2004 would come under the form of crude processing deals, a measure by which the listed state oil giant aimed to minimise losses caused by China’s new tax policy on exports.