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Guangzhou oil supply 'returning to normal'
By Zhan Lisheng in Guangzhou and Wang Ying in Beijing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-19 05:49
The fuel shortage affecting Guangdong is dragging on, but the situation in Guangzhou has improved since earlier in the week when hundreds of drivers queued up at the city's pumps.
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Drivers queue up to buy petrol at a gas station in Dongguan in South China's Guangdong Province August 17, 2005. The fuel shortage affecting Guangdong is dragging on. [Feng Zhoufeng]
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Zheng Xiaoming was happy with the good fill-up of his car in Guangzhou yesterday afternoon before he drove back to Zhongshan, a city about 70 kilometres to the south in South China's Guangdong Province.
"It took me only about 20 minutes to fill up just now at a filling station in downtown Guangzhou," said Zheng, a high school headmaster in Zhongshan who was in town for a meeting.
"I spent more than two hours waiting for a chance to refuel my car in Zhongshan yesterday afternoon, and I only managed to get 150 yuan (US$18.5) worth of 93-octane petrol, hardly enough for my drive to Guangzhou.
"The oil supply shortage is as serious as ever."
Unlike the case in other Pearl River Delta cities, the refined oil shortage in Guangzhou has improved gradually since Wednesday.
Long queues outside petrol stations are no longer common sights in the city. Almost all the 500-odd petrol stations in the city have been able to supply some kind of refined oil.
Having investigated the oil supply at dozens of filling stations in the city yesterday, Guangzhou Vice-Mayor Lin Yuanhe said that the situation is on its way back to normal. He said the China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec), the leading supplier of refined oil to the Guangzhou market, has increased the supply of refined oil to 3,000 tons each day from the former 1,900 tons.
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