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British Petroleum (BP) reportedly will be unable to renew term contracts for its Alaska North Slope (ANS) crude oil with customers in South Korea and Taiwan. BP has been the only ANS producer to export the petroleum since the US gave permission for overseas sales. If oil companies fail to secure term contracts for ANS in the Far East, they may put the oil on the Asian spot market or seek to sell it to West Coast, Gulf Coast or Caribbean buyers.

The US embargo against Iranian oil has not slowed production, but it may have had some impact on exports. Iranian production was 3.6 million barrels per day for June, 1995, which was down from 3.65 million barrels in April and May. The US had been buying between 400,000 and 450,000 barrels per day before the ban, and Iran has not increased its exports to other countries by nearly that much. France has increased its imports of Iranian oil by about 264,000 barrels per day. Much of the oil not bought during the embargo may be in storage.

China plans to abolish its import licensing and quota system for crude oil on Jun 30, 1995. The change is expected to simplify the import system rather than change it dramatically. The import quota system for refined oil will remain the same. Foreign crude oil will not be able to enter China more easily. Crude oil imports will still be processed by Sinochem, Chinaoil and Unipec, China's state oil trading companies.

China's State Planning Commission will combine four of Shanghai, China's six commodities exchanges. The reason is to reduce the possibility of black-market speculation by limiting the number of exchanges per province and to control double-digit inflation by attempting to monitor the fewer exchanges. The Shanghai Petroleum Exchange and the Shanghai Chemicals Exchange will be combined, as will the Construction Materials Exchange and the Agricultural Materials Exchange.