THE government said the country’s oil majors have halted fuel rationing in several major consumption centers and along some key trans-provincial highways following a series of measures aimed at boosting supplies.

Rationing and queues have been widespread across the country since October as global oil prices soared and refiners curbed sales into the price-controlled domestic market to minimize losses.

Fuel rationing ended Saturday in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai municipalities and in Guangdong Province, as well as along highways linking the capital to Shanghai and provinces further down the east coast, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said yesterday.

In addition, curbs on refilling along highways linking Guangdong to Jiangxi and Shanghai to Yunnan were also called off, the NDRC said on its Web site.

To safeguard sugar production and transportation in Guangxi and Yunnan, two of the country’s major sugar-producing regions, PetroChina provided an additional 27,000 tons of diesel and Sinopec increased its supplies to Yunnan by 27 percent.

The two oil majors had also been supplying crude to qualified local independent refiners in northeastern Chinese provinces, as well as in Shandong, Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces, and buying back qualified refined oil products, the NDRC said.

China’s domestic oil product supply would return to normal soon, once measures to boost supply, properly allocate resources and strengthen market monitoring and supervision take effect, the statement added.(SD-Agencies)