China may hike oil price this week - executive

Shanghai, May 26 (Gasgoo.com) With global oil prices surging, market talk of a fuel price hike in China has been heating up. State media cited an industry executive today as saying retail oil prices may be scaled up later this week.

China's top economic planner has been mulling the price rise. The National Development and Reform Commission recently said current conditions to raise fuel prices have basically matured, and the commission needs to observe both the domestic market situation and global trends in oil prices. Industry insiders say the regulator will soon make its decision.

A top executive of China's oil giant Sinopec has said that that the company is eagerly waiting for the regulator to hike the fuel prices as its refining operations are already in a loss-making state when the crude oil price is 60 yuan ($4.8) a barrel. The retail oil prices are expected to be raised on May 28 or so, the company chairman added.

Experts predicted that price adjustments this time around will be relatively small. That's to try to avoid adding more pressure on farmers, and to keep down production costs.

China introduced a "perfected" fuel pricing mechanism from the beginning of this year to bring local prices more in line with crude oil costs, but it has been loosely implemented in recent months despite surges in crude prices.

Now the world's second-largest oil consumer, China has put the drive for energy efficiency at the center of efforts to restore economic growth, and tried to bring domestic resource prices into line with global rates.