The Chinese government has granted oil product wholesale licenses to eight more oil companies, both state-owned and private, a statement by the Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday.

This is the second batch of new oil products wholesale rights granted this year. In January, the ministry granted such wholesale rights to nine oil companies. Energy consultancy C1 Energy said three of the licenses were given to the top five state-owned companies--China National Petroleum Corp., China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (SNP), China National Offshore Oil Corp. ,Sinochem Group as well as China National Aviation Fuel Group Corp.

So far, the MOFCOM has given 196 oil companies oil product wholesale licenses. Of this, 55 were offered to the top five state-owned companies, making up 28.1% of the total licences granted. Other smaller state-owned and private ones received 66.8% of the licenses, according to C1 Energy.

Since the latter half of 2008, the MOFCOM has stepped up its approval of wholesale rights to local companies and more companies other than the top-five oil giants are gaining the rights.

However, they still face challenges in a market dominated by Sinopec and PetroChina. The competition is becoming fiercer with increasing participation of other large-scale state-owned enterprises such as CNOOC and Sinochem, C1 Energy said.