http://origin.rfaweb.org/front/article.html?service=eng&encoding=10&id=121695Many of China's major cities—including the country's economic showcase, Shanghai—are struggling with fuel shortages in the face of skyrocketing demand for oil products, RFA reports.
A diesel fuel shortage in Shanghai is the latest sign of trouble in China's energy market as the country's demand for oil races far ahead of forecasts.
Filling stations have run short of diesel throughout the past month in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, as well as Guangdong Province, according to reports in the official Chinese media. Supplies of gasoline are also said to be tight.
The news came at the same time as a report by the official Xinhua news agency that the Chinese oil companies Sinopec and PetroChina had announced plans to export a record amount of diesel fuel to other countries this year in an effort to keep domestic prices high.
Analysts said the contradiction highlighted inefficiencies in China's domestic markets.
"To have these two news reports side by side would seem to imply that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing," Robert Ebel, energy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told RFA in a recent interview.
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