Residents in South China's Guangdong Province do not need to worry about oil shortages as supplies are adequate there, a market insider has assured.

 

"Reserves of refined oil in the province exceed 800,000 tons," said Yao Daming, a department manager at the Guangdong Oil and Gas Association. "These reserves can play an effective role in minimizing the possibility of oil shortages," he added.

 

Yao spoke out to try to quash panic among some residents over the chances of a new round of oil shortages in the city. Many car owners and taxi drivers were so worried that they queued up outside filling stations in Pearl River Delta cities.

 

Guangzhou and many other cities in the Pearl River Delta region had oil shortages in July and August last year for several reasons. Typhoons were blamed for disrupting shipments and there was increased demand.

 

And pump prices for petrol were not rising as fast as global crude markets, so firms responded by cutting down on domestic supplies while boosting exports.

 

In the latest panic in the last few days, some drivers were agitated to find some petrol stations were not able to supply fuel on demand.

 

"I did find it a bit difficult to fill my car up earlier this week, but it seems everything is alright today," Wang Dazhi, a Guangzhou taxi driver, told China Daily on Friday.

 

He said he had not seen any long queues at filling stations recently.

 

According to Hou Tao, a worker at a filling station on Luhu Road in downtown Guangzhou, supplies of diesel and 93-octane petrol ran out from time to time in the past few days, with one of the reasons being intensified demand.

 

On Friday, Hou said the supply was normal.

 

Executives with the nation's leading oil suppliers, including both Sinopec and PetroChina, said the supply of oil will generally be normal this year.

 

(China Daily April 29, 2006)