Five more Chinese domestic companies have been granted wholesale licenses for oil products. The five companies include the Qinhuangdao unit of China Marine Bunker (PetroChina) Co., the nation’s major bunker oil supplier, a unit of private company Inner Mongolia Yital Coal Co., and Longkou Huanhai Petrochemical, which is based in Shandong and received a license for refined oil storage. The issuing of the licenses follows a gradual liberalization of the wholesale fuel market, which began five years after China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). Foreign companies are now permitted to sell oil products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel, and kerosene to retailers, which in theory ended the monopoly of China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and Sinopec. (February 24, 2010)