Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell aims to double the number of its gas stations on the Chinese mainland - excluding Jiangsu Province - each year in the next few years to capitalize on China's booming oil fuel retail market.

Shell has 45 gas stations on the mainland currently, said Terry Blaney, the general manager for Shell's retail business in China and the Philippines, on the sidelines of a Shell-sponsored seminar on sustainable development held in Guangzhou over the weekend.

In eastern China's Jiangsu Province, Shell launched a US$187 million joint venture last year with China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, China's largest oil refiner for running 500 gas stations.

Opening up China's oil retail market in December last year according to its commitment to the World Trade Organization, the Chinese Government also approved a joint venture between BP and PetroChina in southern China's Guangdong Province, and one between BP and Sinopec in eastern China's Zhejiang Province. More Sino-foreign ventures are also waiting for a go ahead.

Shell is also talking with local companies about further expanding its retail business in China, Blaney said.

Shell's non-fuel business at the gas stations, including convenience stores and car care services- which remain relatively small - will also expand since increasing competition in the market had turned it into a necessity, he said.

Shell invested about US$1 billion in China last year, bringing its total so far in the country to US$3 billion, said Nick Wood, Shell's Beijing-based spokesman.

The company is in discussions about further involvement in liquefied natural gas business in China, Wood said, adding that it is interested in a number of liquified natural gas (LNG) projects including one in eastern China's Shandong Province. Shell has a share in a gas project in Australia, which inked a deal last year to supply LNG to China's first LNG project located in Guangdong.

(China Daily January 10, 2005)