THE Ministry of Commerce yesterday urged major oil firms to increase diesel supplies to meet rising demand in the agricultural sector during spring and summer.

    Related companies and government agencies must “spare no efforts to carry out various measures to ensure diesel supplies in the rural areas,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its Web site.

    The ministry said it would closely monitor inventories and clamp down on any unapproved price hikes and speculative hoarding.

    Chinese oil companies, despite huge profits from upstream operations, have been suffering from heavy losses in refining operations because of soaring crude oil prices and the country’s central pricing system for oil products.

    The country’s biggest oil refiner Sinopec has received 12.3 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion) in subsidies from the government for refining losses in 2007 and the first quarter of 2008, the third such bailout money since 2005.

    Sinopec and fellow oil giant PetroChina also said at the weekend that the Central Government would offer a monthly subsidy from April to help them cover losses incurred in refining imported crude oil.

    But shortages of fuel, particularly diesel, remains a problem, according to previous media reports.

    Xinhua reported Tuesday queues waiting to fuel vehicles in Zhuhai City in Guangdong Province.(SD-Agencies)