China’s “teapot” refiners say state-owned oil major Sinopec and its trading arm, Unipec, are trying to pressure them to give up their right to independently import crude oil.
The move, the refiners claim, would result in their disappearance from the tanker chartering world as an independent force.
Forcing refiners to source all crude through oil majors would not change import volumes, they say, but their businesses would be absorbed into Unipec’s vast trading volumes.
